Property Record
500 MILFORD ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Van Camp Packing Company |
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| Other Name: | Brandt Inc. |
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| Reference Number: | 7220 |
| Location (Address): | 500 MILFORD ST |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | Watertown |
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| Year Built: | 1907 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1986 |
| Historic Use: | industrial building |
| Architectural Style: | Federal |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cream Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | This is the factory built for Van Camp's milk processing plant. The Van Camp Milk Processing Plant was built in 1907 and by 1921 it had several additions built on to the facility. In 1920 it employed 65 workers and processed as much as 183,000 pounds of milk a day. The milk was gathered from area farmers. In 1921 it was considered one of the most complete and modern milk condensing plants in the state. This factory building is significant for local history under National Register Criterion A because it was the Van Camp's milk processing plant, one of two large milk processing plants in the community. In the late ninteenth century, the dairy industry took off in Wisconsin. By the turn of the century the small creameries and milk processing plants gathered milk from a larger area. The Van Camp plant was just this type of plant, providing a market for the raw milk of area farmers. Of the two milk processing plants in Watertown, this plant has ahigher level of integrity and probably represents better the type of milk processing plant built in the early twentieth century. For this reason it is significant for local history. Built in 1907, the Van Camp Milk Processing Plant is a rather utilitarian industrial building characterized mainly by gable shaped brick parapets rising above the roof and segmental arched windows with multipaned window sashes. A complex of irregular shape created by the multiple additions built in a similar style, the Milk Processing Plant shows little unsympathetic alteration. The Van Camp Milk Processing Plant is significant under criterion C as an exceptionally well-preserved early 20th century industrial building. One of the very few industrial buildings remaining in the city, the Van Camp Plant exhibits the typical appearance of a utilitarian industrial building still under the influence of the historic styles. Other good examples of early 20th century industrial architecture in Watertown include the Biefeld Building at 118 No. Water and the G.B. Lewis Building at 426 Montgomery Street. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Carl E. Emmerling, "You Ought to be Glad You are Living in Watertown, the Big Town of Jefferson and Dodge Counties." Watertown Daily Times, August, 1921. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |