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Property Location
Property Features
POINTED ARCHED WINDOW IN DORMER. ELABORATE PIERCED BARGE BOARDS IN GABLES. PIERCED WORK ON PORCH.
One of Wauwatosa’s oldest houses, this two-story residence exemplifies the Gothic Revival subtype called Carpenter’s Gothic. Hallmark traits include the cross-gabled roof, the one-story porch with flattened-arch brackets, and the one-story bay window lighting the parlor. But what makes the Hart House memorable are its spectacular bargeboards, wooden confections jig-sawn to showcase the carpenter’s craft. There are six bargeboard patterns in all: an oak-leaf pattern in the large gable over the bay window, a quatrefoil-and-trefoil combination in the gabled porch entry, a lacy hand-carved pattern in the gable over the second-story lancet window, a floral motif in the front south-facing gable, and quatrefoils throughout. There is even a wavelike design in the bargeboards of the old barn.
The construction date is uncertain, but the house may have been the first residence built on Church, Wauwatosa’s first residential street. Thomas Hart, who bought the house in 1874, helped found the city by building a sawmill on the Menomonee River around 1838, followed by a gristmill in 1841. The Hart House, originally T-shaped, grew over the years with additions made to the rear, though its front and side facades have barely changed. The current owners restored the house in the 1980s and 1990s.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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