| Additional Information: | This two story frame house, built in the early 1870s, is architecturally significant as an example of the vernacular late Italianate houses of the period which employed a variety of machine-produced wooden ornament to decorate an otherwise unrelieved facade. Based loosely on an L-shape, and enlarged throughout the 19th century, the house has a low-pitched hip roof with projecting eaves. Tall and narrow windows, regularly spaced, are framed with simple architraves. Thin corner boards and a frieze board outline the house while a modest variety of bay windows project from the east and west facades. But the most distinctive feature of the house is the porch detail especially at the north and east entries, which include turned posts with knobs, spindle friezes, and perforated brackets--detailing anticipates the Stick-like and Eastlake ornament of later homes.
This home was built in 1874 by John B. Pfeffer, who lived in the house until he died sometime between 1915 and 1919. Pfeffer was a notable individual connected with Beloit College. Hired as a janitor for Beloit College in 1864, he retained the position for more than 50 years. He was well known and loved by students and faculty. Edward Eaton wrote that "he regarded himself as in a true sense a colleague of the Faculty," and "he was always a friend of the 'boys', indulgent of their pranks, welcoming them back as chums."
In the 1886 city directory, a woman named Christena Wicks, whose occupation was that of a domestic, boarded at 724 Chapin with the Pfeffer household. Living adjacent to the College, Pfeffer expanded his home in 1891 to house students interested in convenient boarding. By 1896 the city directory shows two students, Thomas S. Huntley and Charles D. McConnell, living at 724 Chapin. In later years there were continuously two boarders with the Pfeffer family. By 1915, the boarders were F. Smith (a painter) and W.H. Dubbee (teacher at Beloit College). Since that time, the apartments in the house have been rented almost exclusively by College faculty.
Throughout his years at Beloit College, Pfeffer was closely associated with the student body, as well as the buildings and grounds of the campus. He took special pride in the care of the chapel, and was the bell ringer of the chapel and Middle College bells. When he died, his funeral was held in the College Chapel with students as his pall bearers. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Beloit Tax Rolls.
(B) Eaton, Edward, Historical Sketches of Beloit College. A.S. Barnes, New York, 1929, pp. 76-77.
(C) Rock County Directories, 1886-1897.
(D) City of Beloit Directory, 1915.
(E) Verbal statement of R.H. Irrmann, Beloit College Archivist, to surveyor, July 1981. |
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