- Architecture - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- Buildings that remain - Early structures still impress
- Some of Janesville's earliest structures remain for viewing
today.
- Among the most noteworthy are the TALLMAN House, the
Stone House and the HAYES
- block.
- Consider how impressive the TALLMAN House was when
it was first built in the 1850s:
- Like an epic movie, the TALLMAN House took five years
of planning stages, another two in
- basic construction and 13 years more before the final touches
were made. Built by a transplanted New York attorney, William
TALLMAN, it became widely known and set an architectural
example followed throughout the area.
- When the main structure was completed in 1857, the house
had 26 rooms on five floors. In addi-
- tion, the house had mid-19th century conveniences like running
water, communication systems, central heating, plumbing and gas
lighting. The building was said to cost $42,000 - and that was
over a century ago.
- Among the features are three parlors, three family chambers,
a bathing room and servant rooms.
- The most famous guest in the home was Abraham Lincoln, who
slept there in 1859.
- The TALLMAN House really has a life beyond its own
as its Italianate-style architecture
- influenced construction elsewhere in the city.
- Other wealthy residents built other homes in the same vein.
Among them were Timothy
- JACKMAN, an early business leader, who built a simplified
version of the TALLMAN House. That home still stands at
55 S. Atwood.
- This architectural style was also reflected in more affordable
homes with scaled-down modifica-
- tions of the basic TALLMAN House theme. The home at
121 S. Academy is a good example.
- One of Janesville's earliest structures was almost demolished.
- The Stone House was moved from the present location of the
Court Street Professional building
- to the TALLMAN House site in 1964 after it was slated
for demolition.
- Restored by the Early Janesville Restoration Society, it
was furnished with whale oil lamps, wood
- burning stoves, and beds with straw mattresses.
- In 1855, merchant Thomas LAPPIN began construction
of a store at 20 E. Milwaukee which
- became known as the LAPPIN-HAYES Block, and
now the HAYES Block.
- Like the TALLMAN House, the HAYES Block was
an example of Italianate architecture. The
- building was constructed of Milwaukee cream brick with stone
window sills and decorative cast-iron window hoods.
- At one time the block included a meeting hall which sat 800
people, an Old Fellows Hall as well
- as offices.
- It was remodeled in 1899 when LAPPIN died and the
building was purchased by contractors
- Dennis and Michael HAYES who spent $35,000 to remodel
it. Included in the renovation was the installation of Rock County's
first elevator. As a result of the remodeling, the building became
a combination of Queen Anne and Italianate architecture with
the addition of corner bays, removal of decorative iron cresting
from the window hoods and other touches.
-
- [Photograph, p. 10F; caption reads: This stately building
was constructed in 1876 to house students attending the Wisconsin
School for the Visually Handicapped. An 1874 fire destroyed the
original building, then the Wisconsin Institute for the Education
of the Blind, first occupied in 1852. One student died in the
fire, which was caused by sparks from a chimney. The present
building was completed in 1966. The WSVH has been at its present
site since 1852.]
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