Property Record
403 W CAPITOL DRIVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (German) |
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| Other Name: | ZION EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH |
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| Reference Number: | 7927 |
| Location (Address): | 403 W CAPITOL DRIVE |
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| County: | Waukesha |
| City: | Hartland |
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| Year Built: | 1910 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1979 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | Late Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cream Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 12/8/1986 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Multiple Resources of Hartland |
| Additional Information: | Another map code for this building is F 2/21 found on the DOT Hartland map. POINTED ARCHED WINDOWS The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church is located at 403 West Capitol Drive in the Village of Hartland. Built in 1910 for Hartland's German-speaking Lutheran congregation, the church was dedicated in December of that year. The general contractors were J. P. Peterson and Bernard Nienow of Hartland, and the parishioners donated time and labor in the construction of the church. Built of cream brick and set on a fieldstone foundation, the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church is one tall story in height with a raised basement and a gabled roof. Dominating the main facade of the Neo-Gothic Revival Church is a tower and shingled spire rising to a height of fifty feet. The main entrance, located at the base of the tower, is made up of a pair of wooden doors set in a pointed arch with a tracery transom. At the base of the spire are turrets and dormers. The windows are set within pointed arched openings and the gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Above is a panel inscribed as follows: EV. LUTH. ZIONS 19 GEMEINDE .10 The tower is flanked in either side by a pointed arched tracery window. A series of leaded lancet and tracery windows appear on each of the east and west facades. The rear of the church proper is a non-contributing one-story brick addition of streamlined modern construction. The interior of the church has suffered little alteration. The elaborate stained glass windows provide a striking contrast to the simplicity of the nave and chancel. The church housed Ecclesiastical gatherings from 1910 to 1985. The building itself is situated on about two acres of land. It was owned in May of 1985 by Zion Lutheran Resources c/o Donald Thurow, 1122 Anton Road in Hartland. Architectural/Engineering Singificance: The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church is architecturally significant as a good local example of the Neo-Gothic Revival style, and is the oldest of the three churches in Hartland being nominated to the National Register. The First Congregational Church (214 East Capitol Drive, 1923) represents a later development of the Neo-Gothic Revival, and the Dansk Kirke (400 West Capitol Drive, 1910) is designed in the Romanesque-influenced tradition of church architecture. Built by the parishioners of the German Lutheran congregation, lending the church a vernacular flavor, the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church retains good integrity, umpompromised by the 1951 addition, which lies below grade to the rear of the church proper and is not visible from the street. Historical Background: German settlement in Hartland was simply a microcosim of a mid nineteenth century statewide phenomenon. Many German immigrants settled in the rapidly industrialzed city of Milwaukee. Those that lived in Hartland, like Carl H. Schmidt and William Schwager, followed agrarian and small merchantile pursuits respectively. A sizeable population had settled in Hartland by 1881 (?) when a German-Danish Lutheran congregation was established. The two ethinc groups shared a building up to 1910, when they split. The Danes bought out the German interest in the old church while the Germans bought a lot directly across the street for a new building. (See Bib. Ref. A). Historical Significance: German immigration was a powerful force in settling Wisconsin. Hartland's German Lutheran Church is historically significant under criterion A as a local manifestation of this movement, as well as its ethnic identity. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. Hartland History Group. Hartland: A Chronicle 1838-1976. (Hartland: Wisconsin), 1976. B. Hartland History Group, Hartland: A Chronicle, (Hartland, Wisconsin: 1976), p. 48. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, "100th Anniversary of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church," 1967. Hartland News, 12/17/1910. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |