Property Record
428 W WELLS ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Hawks Inn |
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| Other Name: | HAWKS INN |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 7875 |
| Location (Address): | 428 W WELLS ST |
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| County: | Waukesha |
| City: | Delafield |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
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| Year Built: | 1846 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | inn |
| Architectural Style: | Greek Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Hawks Inn |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 2/23/1972 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the State Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. RETURNED EAVES. PORCH ACROSS FRONT W/BALCONY ABOVE. STATION ON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY FOR ESCAPED SLAVES. HABS WI-110. MOVED TO SITE; ORIGINALLY LOCATED ON A MADISON-MILWAUKEE ROAD. CURRENTLY USED AS A MUSEUM. MARKED WITH A WAUKESHA CO. HISTORICAL MARKER. A rare surviving stagecoach inn, this two-story clapboard house was a favorite stopping place for travelers on the plank road between Milwaukee and the territorial capital in Madison. Proprietor Nelson Hawks, known for the fine food and drink he served, also owned two early local mills and platted some of the land in town. His inn stood at the corner of Main and Genesee streets, but local preservationists moved it to this location in 1960 to save it from demolition. Like the stagecoach inn preserved in Greenbush, the Hawks expresses a simple Greek Revival style. Instead of a classical portico, a one-story porch with simple Doric pillars and a balustraded deck spans the facade. The building originally had an ell housing a large kitchen and a one-story wing that was added soon after the inn was built. Both were gone by 1936. The front porch was missing, too, but the Hawks Inn Historical Society reconstructed it in the 1960s as a period-house museum. Later the organization built a kitchen wing that recalls but does not replicate the old one. |
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| Bibliographic References: | PERRIN, HISTORICAL WISCONSIN BUILDINGS, 1962. ZIMMERMAN. Waukesha Freeman 3/14/1997. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |