Property Record
413 S 2ND ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH |
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| Other Name: | ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH |
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| Reference Number: | 7081 |
| Location (Address): | 413 S 2ND ST |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | Watertown |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1859 |
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| Additions: | 1886 |
| Survey Date: | 1986 |
| Historic Use: | house of worship |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cream Brick |
| Architect: | CLAUDE & STARCK (SOME WORK); JAMES DOUGLAS |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | St. Paul's Episcopal Church |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 11/7/1979 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. This church was the second building constructed for the Episcopal congregation in Watertown. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for architectural significance in 1979. In 1857 the Episcopalians organized a formal church after being served for several years by a missionary circuit preacher from Fox Lake, in northwestern Dodge County. The Rev. Malacthon Hoyt, the missionary preacher. became the first rector of the new church in Watertown. The first church building was constructed in the same year of its founding, but in 1859 the present church was built. The old church building was later moved and burned. The rectory for the church was built in 1885 and an attached chapel was built in 1886. A tower bell was added in 1890 and in 1931 a hall was added to the chapel. St. Paul's is one of the oldest functioning church buildings in Watertown and continues to serve this congregation today. St. Paul's Church and Rectory was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for architectural significance. While the church has been a landmark congregation in the community for over 100 years, its history is typical of many small Episcopal churches established in Wisconsin during the nineteenth century for the primarily Yankee settlers an does not meet the eligibility criteria. Built in 1859, the Gothic Revival styled St. Paul's Episcopal Church exhibits a steeply pitched gable roof with shed roofed side aisles on both sides of the nave. A square apse and a square bell tower with slender octagonal spire created in the later Victorian Gothic style in 1885 located at the southwest corner as well as a modern gable roofed vestibule added in 1968 add to the physical form of the church complex. Brick buttresses, lancet windows, openings with brick hood molds and replacement stained glass windows added in 1909 by the Milwaukee Art Glass Company further characterize the main structure while corbelled brick wooden moldings and a pointed arched entrance articulate the Victorian Gothic tower. The gable roofed chapel placed at right angles to the church features pointed arched windows, gabled dormers and brick buttresses. Exhibiting the simplification of design typically found in the Revival style of the 1920s and 1930s, the Guild Hall built in 1931 is characterized by the combination of round, segmental arched and rectangular windows and doors. St. Paul's Episcopal Church is significant under criterion C as the design of a regionally important architect and as an example of Gothic Revival architecture. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Chapel, and Guild Hall were placed on the NRHP in 1979. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) National Register Nomination Form, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Watertown, WI, files, Preservation Division, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (B) Watertown Daily Times 19 Sept. 1909. (C) "St. Paul's Church is 80 Years Old Sunday," Watertown Daily Times, November 19, 1927. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |