Property Record
E OAK ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Sparta Iron Works |
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| Reference Number: | 74945 |
| Location (Address): | E OAK ST |
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| County: | Monroe |
| City: | Sparta |
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| Year Built: | 1891 |
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| Additions: | 1902C. 1915 |
| Survey Date: | 1989 |
| 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: | Large rectangular window openings presently filled with wood panels. The Forge Shop and Foundry of the Sparta Iron Works was completed in 1891 and was added on to in 1902, and again in 1911-1912. The Sparta Iron Works began on East Oak Street. Sparta's second foundry was built by Lowrie, Irwin and Gillette on East Oak Street. This foundry was purchased by the Sparta Manufacturing Company, but thereafter the foundry was damaged heavily in a fire. In 1872, L.M. Newbury & J.P. Ward purchased what was left of the charred remains of the foundry and began the Sparta Iron Works. In 1872, they rebuilt the main building of the foundry on the southwest corner of East Oak Street and Chester Streets. Subsequently, many other buildings were added over time. In the 1870's, this foundry did an annual net business of $20,000, most of it from well-drilling machinery for digging artesian wells. In 1888, the Sparta Iron Works advertised that it manufactured iron and brass castings, rotary saw mills, shingle mills and boilers. The above improvements to the forge shop and foundry were made about this time. In December, 1893, it was turned into a stock company and incorporated as Sparta Iron Works Company. The officers of the company were L.M. Newbury, J.U. Durant and C.M. Newbury. By 1894, the plant occupied two acres of land with a foundry. machine shop, planing mill, pattern shop, pattern house, blacksmith shop, engine room, paint shop, and storage house. At this time, the Company employed twenty-five hands, and it was well equipped, including a steam hammer weighing over 11,000 pounds. Later, the operation passed to Carl Newburg and T.N. Durant, and then even later Robert and Lee Canfield assumed control over the business. By 1900, the Sparta Iron Works continued as a foundry and machine shops, but the foundry casting business had dropped off. In 1900, they continued to make special lines of well-drilling apparatus and furnaces, as well as engines, boilers and all kinds of agricultural machinery, employing forty men in the works and five traveling salesmen. In 1910, Samuel Kent Dickinson assumed the management of the business, which did a large amount of work during World War I. However, sometime after 1922, the business was discontinued. The Sparta Iron Works Forge/Foundry Building gains local historical significance under Criteria A in association with the Primary Metal Processing and Metal Products Industries topic of the Industry Theme. The Sparta Iron Works was a major contributor to the growth and economy of Sparta in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, serving the community and the region at large with their metal products. The building's period of historical significance ranges from its erection in 1891 to the closing of the foundry sometime after 1922. This utilitarian brick industrial building is a gable roofed form that exhibits plain elevations that are devoid of ornament. This brick industrial building was constructed as part of the Sparta Iron Works complex in 1891, while L.M. Newbury, the original owner of the Sparta Iron Works, was still the proprietor. This building originally was used by the Sparta Iron Worls as its forge and blacksmith shop from the time of its construction until the Iron Works ceased operations in the 1920s. This building originally, 20 feet x 25 feet, received substantial additions after Robert Canfield and J. Durant purchased the iron work in 1897. A one-story brick 40 feet x 50 feet addition to the forge shop was constructed in 1902 and was substantially rebuilt using wood trusses to raise the roof between 1911 and 1922. The Sparta Iron Works was established in 1869 when L.M. Newbury purchased the burnt out remains of the Lowrie, Irwin and Gilbert Foundry. New buildings, according to the Sparta Tax Records, for the foundry were constructed on the corner of East Oak and South Chester beginning in 1872. The Sparta Iron Works was sold to Robert Canfield and J. Durant in 1897. The Sparta Iron Works was in operation until at least the late 1920s. The Sparta Iron Works Forge Shop and Foundry is significant under Criterion C as an example of an early utilitarian industrial building. This early industrial building is one of the very few 19th century industrial buildings remaining in Sparta. The only other examples of 19th century industrial buildings identified in the 1989-1990 survey of Sparta are the accompanying buildings in the Sparta Iron Works complex including the machine shop (MP34/23) and the moulding room building (MO34/21). Related buildings: MO34/20-23 |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Sanborn Perris Insurance Maps 1889, 1894, 1900, 1911, 1922, 1931. (B) City of Sparta Property Tax Rolls, 1870-1940; Tax Records 1868-1930. (C) Map of Sparta, Wisconsin. Milwaukee: Phoenix Map Company of Milwaukee, 1875. (D) Sparta Herald May 11, 1869; July 7, 1891; July 14, 1891; March 6, 1894; Jan. 5, 1897; April 1, 1902. (E) Barney, Tyler Davis "A History of the Growth of Sparta, Wisconsin, 1850 to 1890." B.A. Thesis. University of Wisconsin, 1922, pp. 31b and 36. (F) "History of Sparta," installment 31. (G) Koehler, Lyle P., From Frontier Settlement to Self-Conscious American Community: A History of One Rural Village (Sparta, Wisconsin) in the Nineteenth Century. Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, Inc., 1977, p. 43. (H) No Author, History of Northern Wisconsin; Containing an Account of its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources: An Extensive Sketch of its Counties, Cities, Towns, and Villages...Etc. Chicago: The Western Historical Company, 1881, p. 634. (I) Richards, Randolph A., History of Monroe Country, Wisconsin: Past and Present, Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County. Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co., 1912, pp. 273 and 323-324. (J) Ellsworth, C.S., Views in and Around Sparta, Giving a Brief History of the City and Setting Forth Its Advantages for Manufacturing and as a Place of Residence, Together with Some Account of its Celebrated Magnetic Mineral Water. Portage, Wisconsin: Register Printing Company, 1888, p. 41. (K) Gregory, John G., West Central Wisconsin: A History. Vol. 4, Indianapolis: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1933, p. 87. (L) Jones, Ida Lucille, "A History of Sparta, Wisconsin." B.A. Thesis. University of Wisconsin, 1915, p. 5. (M) R.L. Polk, Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory (Chicago: R.L. Polk, 1876, 1879, 1888, 1894, 1895-96, 1905-06, 1915, 1919). |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |