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Property Location
Property Features
This building once stood at the site of the old toll house for the Watertown Plank road, one of the historic plank roads built in Wisconsin. Used by farmers driving cattle to Milwaukee; has been moved and altered.
In 1849 a corporation was chartered to built a plank road west out of Milwaukee. Construction on plank roads was slow and by 1849 portions were completed near Milwaukee and between Watertown on Oconomowoc. In June of 1853 the road was completed between Watertown and Milwaukee. The Watertown Plank road was one of the few plank roads that was profitable. Plank roads were difficult an expensive to maintain and unless the route was a popular one with farmers and other travelers, plank roads could not collect enough money to survive. When the railroad links came to southeastern Wisconsin, it was quickly evident that they could provide cheaper rates and were more efficient than the plank roads. The plank road eventually succombed to decay and eventually planks were removed. By 1863 the road was a ruin and it eventually disappeared altogether.
The Plank Toll House Barn was some local historical interest because it was related to the Watertown Plank Road, an early road designed to improve the travel between major cities in the state. The building probably does not meet the criteria for significance because it is no longer at the site of the historic roadway. It is, though, preserved on the museum grounds and interpreted as representing an important era in the city's history.
The Plank Road Toll House Barn is not architecturally significant because the barn has been altered and it has been moved from its original site to the grounds of the Octagon House Museum.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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