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Property Location
Property Features
This house was the home of John Schempf between c. 1900 and around 1920. John Schempf was related to George and Leonard Schempf who founded the Schempf Brothers store in 1848. The store grew to become the largest and most important department store in the community. John and Edward Schempf continued the tradition of family ownership until the store closed in 1936.
This house has historical interest as the home of John Schempf, one of the second generation of Schempfs to operate the Schempf Brothers department storem Watertown's most significant retail business. While John Schempf was important in the later operation of the Schempf business, he was not the founder or long-timed original owner.
Designed by the Milwaukee architect, O.C. Wehling, this Queen Anne styled house is further characterized by a wrap around flat roofed porch with dentil trim under the eaves that is supported by Tuscan columns. This house is currently in the process of being restored.
The John Schempf house is significant as an example of the Queen Anne style in Watertown. One of the few good frame examples of the Queen Anne style remaining in the city, and certainly one of the most elaborate, this house exhibits the common Queen Anne hipped roof with multiple cross gables and multiple lower cross gables and the multiple overhangs and projections that provide the irregularity of form and wall surface essential to this style while an open porch serves as an asymmetrical element for this picturesque house. Other significant examples of the Queen Anne style in the city constructed in wood are the houses at 804 Clyman St. (43-28), 306 N. Washington (55-28) and 118 N. Washington St. (55-18).
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
Architecture & History Inventory
The Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory (AHI) is a digital source of information on historic buildings, structures, and objects that have been surveyed by the State Historic Preservation Office in Wisconsin. Each property has a digital record providing basic information about the property and images.
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