| Additional Information: | Rising two stories plus attic, with a steeply pitched gable roof, and flanked by symmetrically placed side wings, the tan brick L. Waldo Thompson house is composed of strictly rectangular units united by a facade of studied symmetry and Georgian detail. Three large dormers with swan's neck pediments contribute to the home's monumentality Gable end chimneys, rising slightly above the roof ridge, frame the house. The facade of the main block is five window bays wide with center entry and flat arches with keystones above the first story windows. Although the two-story side wings are not mirror images, they carry the cornice line across the facade. The west wing shares the fenestration pattern while the east wing features enclosed sun porches with multipaned rectangular windows. The disposition of the masses contributes to the balance of the house. Detail, too, is carefullly balanced and restrained. The eave of the gable is treated as a classical cornice with modillions above a frieze with triglyph detail. The entry porch (south facade) echoes the cornice with a full entablature supported by Tuscan columns, with a balustrade on top. The door is framed by pilasters, sidelights, and a transom.
A porte-cochere on the rear facade is supported by Doric pilasters, Tuscan columns, and an unornamented entablature. Above that, a Palladian-like window grouping ornaments the second story. While Georgian in inspiration, not all the detail is "correct." The eight-over-one sash windows on the first floor reveal the 20th century construction date. An unattached brick garage with gable roof stands immediately to the rear of the house.
Imposing both in size and spirit, the L. Waldo Thompson house is an architecturally significant residence reflecting the large scaled and increasingly academic Colonial revival style favored by Beloits economic elite in the 1920s and 30s. Balanced and restrained in plan and detail, and throughly Georgian in inspiration, the house is less eclectic than earlier Colonial Revival homes in the city, and, as such, reflects the increasing sophistication of Beloit residential architecture in the twentieth century. Although neither inspired nor original by contemporary standards, the Waldo residence was perhaps the first large scale home of its type and period in Beloit and remains a substantial legacy of the academic revivalism that shaped much of the city's finest residential work.
Built in the early 1920s (begun in 1921) 1225 Chapin was the residence of L. Waldo Thompson, an important Beloit industrialist. At the time of construction, Thompson was president of two manufacturing companies--the Gaston Scale Company and the Gardner Machine Company. The Gaston Company was one of Beloit's oldest industrial concerns--founded in 1844--and passed into Thompson's ownership in 1919. Through the 1920s and 1930s, the company manufactured sensitive parts for scales. The Gardner Machine Company, makers of polishing and grinding machinery, prospered throughout the mid-20th century. By 1930, Thompson had assumed the vice-presidency of the Beloit Foundry Company. The substantial home that he built reflected his economic stature as well as his social prominence. One of the most expensive homes in Beloit at the time of construction, the new building (exclusive of land) was assessed at $23,000 in 1921, an amount almost without equal in the city. |
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