Property Record
410 S 1ST ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | American Cigar Co.; Liggett and Meyers Tobacco Co. |
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| Other Name: | Seven Up Bottling |
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| Reference Number: | 74647 |
| Location (Address): | 410 S 1ST ST |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | Watertown |
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| Year Built: | 1900 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1986 |
| Historic Use: | warehouse |
| Architectural Style: | Astylistic Utilitarian Building |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | 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 facility was the old tobacco warehouse for the Liggett and Meyers Tobacco Company. Around the turn of the century, this building was built for the American Cigar Company. It then became the Pinkerton Tobacco Company, and in 1911 became the Liggett and Meyers company warehouse. From this facility L & M marketed the chewing tobacco grown in southern Wisconsin. They bought and stored the tobacco here, and for a time, it was stemmed and stripped here as well. The warehouse continued hre until 1967, when L & M moved it to Stoughton. Lately, the building has been used as the Seven Up Bottling Company facility. This building is significant for local history under National Register criterion A, because it was a long-time tobacco warehouse, the only and probably largest facility of its kind in Watertown. Watertown had a number of cigar-making factories, and cigar-making was a lively and profitable small industry in the community. But this building is the only known tobacco warehouse used primarily as a tobacco storage and distribution center for the product. Tobacco warehouses are common facilities in some communities in Dane and especially Rock counties. A great deal of leaf tobacco was grown in these areas and the tobacco warehouses were dealing and distribution points for the product, which reached its height of importance during the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. The size of this facility indicates that it was a large distribution center for the product. Because this was an unusual activity in Watertown, this building is significant for local history. The southern part of this complex was once the Watertown Electric Light company office, later the Watertown Gas and Electric Company Office. It was located here between c. 1890 and c. 1915. The electric company began in 1889 and operated a small steam generating plant. In 1903 the company rebuilt the Rough and Ready Dam site, improved it again in 1909 and erected a large generating plant there that same year. In 1905 the gas an electric companies merged and the offices were located here. In 1915 atertown's gas and eletric company was acquired by the Wisconsin Gas and Electric Company and offices moved to Main Street. This portion of the building now housing the bottling company has historical interest as the one-time offices of the gas an electric company. While the location of the gas and electric company is important, this building has seen some major integrity loss, now incorporated within a larger building. For this reason it is not individually historically significant. Ornamented only by a raised brick denticulated cornice bordered by a row of decorative brick, this turn of the century utilitarian appearing American Cigar Company building also features segmental arched windows and door as well as port-hole windows on the upper facade. The structure has been altered by the addition of paint to the exterior and the windows and doors have been altered. One of the few extant historic industrial buildings in the city of Watertown, the American Cigar Company has retained a fair degree of integrity. Although historically significant, this building does not exhibit a great deal of architectural character and has been altered from the original. As a result, it is not an architecturally significant vernacular industrial building. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Evelyn Rose, "Tobacco Played Early and Long Lasting Role Here," in her column, "People and Places in Watertown's Past," Watertown Daily Times, March 6, 1982. (B) Sanborn Perris Maps, 1890-1915, on file at the Archives Division of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. (C) First Electric Company Established in 89," Watertown Daily TImes Centennial Issue, June 26, 1954, n.p. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |