Property Record
808 PARK AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
|---|---|
| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 82807 |
| Location (Address): | 808 PARK AVE |
|---|---|
| County: | Rock |
| City: | Beloit |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
| Range: | |
| Direction: | |
| Section: | |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1906 |
|---|---|
| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1981 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Other Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Near East Side Historic District |
|---|---|
| National Register Listing Date: | 1/7/1983 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Multiple Resources of Beloit |
| Additional Information: | Strongly suggestive of the Prairie style in its massing and profile, but employing individual elements as well, the house at 808 Park Avenue is an architecturally significant example of eclective "progressive" architecture in Beloit during the early 20th century. With a low pitched hip roof and broadly extending flared eaves, the two story house has an emphatic horizontal quality. To emphasize the massing, ornament is completely eliminated in favor of plain clapboard siding, corner boards, and simple window frames. But the most remarkable features of the house are six cubic piers: two which anchor the front porch and four which rise above the roof on all four sides like massive stakes securing the house to the ground. Severely rectilinear and symmetrically placed, the piers underscore the geometric lines of the house. Curious Egyptian-like cavetto cornices, flared outward at the crown, reduce any verticality in favor of a strong horizontal terminus. Between the rooftop piers, the east and west walls break through eave line and culminate in hip roof dormers which extend the ridge line of the main roof. On the base of the porch piers, smaller piers intersect to create pyramidal buttresses. Capturing much of the spirit of the Prairie style, the house deploys those elements in an almost idiosyncratic fashion that harmonizes well with the exuberant eclecticism of the Near East Side District. Built in 1906, this house was first owned by E. L. Philhower, a Beloit grocer. |
|---|---|
| Bibliographic References: | A. Beloit Tax Rolls, RCHS Archives. B. City of Beloit Directory, 1906. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |