Property Record
113-115-117 S 2ND ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Geschke Hardware; Biefeld Machine Shop |
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| Other Name: | Plattdeucher Verein of Watertown Club |
| Contributing: | No |
| Reference Number: | 74665 |
| Location (Address): | 113-115-117 S 2ND ST |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | Watertown |
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| Year Built: | 1855 |
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| Additions: | C. 1950C. 1885 1941 |
| Survey Date: | 19862020 |
| Historic Use: | large retail building |
| Architectural Style: | Commercial Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Main Street Commercial Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 6/2/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | These two storefronts had several historic businesses located there in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In 115 S. Second was the long-time location of Geschke Hardware. The store began with German immigrant Charles Geschke, who came to Watertown in 1865. Charles opened the hardware store with his sons Edward and Richard under the name of Geschke and Sons Hardwaer. Edward died in 1877, and since that time, Richard Geschke was the sole owner of the store. He operated the business at this location until at least 1921. In 117 S. Second St. was the office of the Watertown Weltburger, the most important of the German language newspapers in town, between 1872 and 1893. In 1893, the building became the machine shop of the Biefeld Brothers, Otto and Richard. This shop eventually became the Biefeld Company, one of the most important metal products firms in Watertown in the twentieth century. They remained at this location until 1899 when their business took off and they moved to 200 N. Water St. After Biefeld left, the buildig became the Glaus-Jaeger Press and bookbindery and eventually the Jansky Printing Company, which operated there until well into the mid twentieth century. This building is significant for local history under National Register criterion A because it was the location of several important businesses. The Geschke Hardware Store was not as significant or prominent as the Kusel Hardware Store, but it ranked about evenly with the Winkenwerder and Pritzlaff hardware stores, the next most successful and long-lived. For this reason the Geshke business is significant for local commercial history. The Watertown Weltburger was located at several different places in Watertown's downtown. But, there are only three locations still extant or with enough integrity to represent historic buildings. The location here is one of the long-term locations of the paper, and one of the three extant locations affiliated with editor David Blumfeld. For this reason this is an important location for this significant German ethnic institution that helped form public opinion in the German community for over 50 years. As the first location of the Beifeld Machine Shop, this building is significant. The Biefeld Machine Shop went on to become an important and significant industry in Watertown, and its first location merits attention. It may not be as significant as their second location, where the company really took off in terms of size and prominence, but it still is a landmark in industrial history in the community. Originally three small commercial structures, of which two, 115-117, were built in 1855 for Cady and Brown and one was built in the late 1880s for H. Rohr, this one-story brick building exhibits the remnants of historic round arched windows and doors with white stone accents on its facade. Once a two-story brick building, the northern part of the present structure was removed into a one-story building exhibiting a contemporary brick appearance. Once the site of the Rohr Feed Store (113 S. Second), the Geschke Hardware Store (115 S. Second) and the Schwarz Printing Office (117 S. Second) in the 19th century, this building has been completely altered by the removal of the storefronts and "bricking up" of the facades. Platdeucher Hall, a two-story contemporary addition fronting on Market Street is located at the rear. Presently the three buildings have been combined into one space for use as a social hall. Although significant as the site of several historically important concerns, these two buildings now combined into one drastically remodeled building has lost considerable architectural integrity. As a result, the Rohr Feed Store (113 S. Second), the Cady-Brown Building at 113-115 S. Second, also known as the Schwartz Printing Office and the Geschke Hardware store do not meet the critera for National Register eligibilty. Also the building does not contribute to the historic character of the proposed Main Street Historic District. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Tax Records, City of Watertown, 1860-1910, Area Research Center, Library, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. (B) Sanborn Insurance Map, City of Watertown, 1884, 1926. (C) "Revised Tariff Rates for Watertown, Wis.," National Board of Fire Underwriters, April 13, 1876. (D) C.W. Butterfield, The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879, p. 607. (E) Watertown City Directories, 1866-1930, on file at the Watertown Public Library, Watertown, WI. (F) "Biefeld Brothers, Otto and Richard, Started Steel Fabricating Company," Watertown Daily Times, Centennial Issue, June 26, 1954, n.p. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |