- Architecture - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- [Photograph; caption reads: In the 1930s, Congress Radiator
Repair had this grandiose storefront. Owned by E. H. ULLIUS,
it was located at 310 W. Milwaukee, between MEYER's Liquor
store and the Appolo Theatre. The site is presently occupied
by Leath Furniture.]
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- City's growth seen in changing skyline
- Architecture started in Janesville 150 years ago when four
men built a log cabin on the banks of
- the Rock River across from what is now called the Big Rock.
- Actually, the U.S. Government surveyed the west bank of the
Rock River at the site of Janesville
- in 1833, but those four men - Joshua and William HOLMES,
John INMAN and George FOLLNER - were the first
to build a permanent structure.
- In 1836, Janesville's namesake Henry JANES hired two
men to build a cabin at what is now the
- intersection of Main and Milwaukee streets.
- Nearly all the development occurred on the east bank. West
bank development occurred after
- the construction of the first bridge in 1842.
- Early developments include:
- The city's first hotel, the Janesville Stagecoach House,
was built in 1838 by Charles STEVENS. The next year the
city's first general store was opened by two Milwaukee men, WARD
and LAPPIN.
- By 1845, a dam and water-powered flour mill had been built.
Soon after, a saw mill, woolen mill, brickyard, stone quarry
and other flour mills started business.
- Thomas LAPPIN built a new general store on the site
of JANES' first cabin.
- In 1842, a courthouse and bridge were built. The courthouse
burned in 1859.
- D. E. KIMBALL built the town's first brick commercial
building in 1844.
- The first schoolhouse was built that same year and in 1845,
the Janesville Academy opened its doors at the intersection of
High and Milwaukee streets.
- The first brick house in town was built in 1845 on Prospect
Street between Main and Parker by Peter MYERS, a Frenchman.
While that house no longer exists, another home he built at the
same time, still stands at 121 N. Parker.
- In 1846, the city's first builder opened for business - J.
M. BURGESS, "architect and practical builder, designer
and builder of court houses, churches, villas, cottages, farm
houses, porticos, pulpits, chimney pieces, cornices..."
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- Visitors bring new ideas
- As the city developed in the 1850s, many sophisticated settlers,
like William TALLMAN, Captain
- William CARGILL and others, came and encouraged a
more high-brow downtown area and construction of villas and cottages.
- In that period most people lived in hotels, boarding houses
or above stores.
- Among the specific developments during that era:
- A pork-packaging building was built at 123 North Main, now
Hobby Emporium.
- Even more imposing was the four-story block built by Thomas
LAPPIN, on the site of Henry JANES' original claim,
20 E. Milwaukee.
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- Suburbia arrives
- With the arrival of the street railway in 1886, "street-car
suburbs" developed along the Centerway-
- Milton Avenue area and, to a lesser degree, out South Main
and North Washington streets and in the Forest Park addition.
- In 1899, two local contractors purchased the LAPPIN
commercial block and spent $35,000 converting them into a "modern
office building."
- The KENT block, 50 S. Main, and the London Hotel,
121-123 E. Milwaukee, were built in the mid-1890s.
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- Public buildings constituted the major construction at the
turn of the century.
- The city hall was built between 1901 and 1906.
- The library was built in 1902 with the help of a $35,000
Andrew Carnegie grant.
- The post office was also constructed in 1902.
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- Of those three buildings, only the library, now the Crossroads
Building, remains.
- Other developments in the early part of the century:
- Around the turn of the century, train depots were built for
the Milwaukee and North Western railroads.
- General Motors expanded the Janesville Machine Co. factory
and constructed a new office building.
- The new YMCA, 54 S. Franklin, was built in 1925.
- The Monterey Hotel on South High Street was built in 1929.
- The PETERs block, 313-317 East Milwaukee, extensively
remodeled in 1913.
- In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Columbus Circle developed
as an area for upper-middle class residents.
- During this same era the Janesville Housing Authority was
established with a $100,000 subsidy from General Motors. The
corporation organized the construction of hundreds of low-cost
bungalow houses on the north edge of the city.
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- A second period of major growth developed after World War
II.
- Subdivisions of postwar ranch houses were built during this
era.
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