Driving and Biking Tour of Historic Evansville
This is a self-guided driving and biking tour of Evansville’s three Historic Districts, each of which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society and National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the U. S. Department of the Interior – National Park Service. The tour begins and ends at the Eager Free Public Library, 39 West Main Street, and is 4.5 miles in length. Hard copies of this brochure can be obtained inside of the library.
Evansville’s Historic Districts are: (1) the Original Evansville Historic District, which generally encompasses Main Street from Allen's Creek on the east to South Fourth Street on the west, Church and Liberty Streets from Madison Street to South Fourth Street, and Garfield Avenue from Madison Street to North Second Street; (2) the South First Street Residential Historical District, which covers South First Street from the vicinity of the Highland Avenue intersection south to 443 First Street; (3) the Grove Street Residential Historic District, which covers Grove Street between North First and North Second Streets, and (4) Leonard-Leota Park.
In addition to the Historic Districts, Evansville has the following properties listed individually on the State and National Registers: The Eager Free Public Library, Leonard-Leota Park, The Eager Funerary Monument and Plot at Maple Hill Cemetery, The Evansville Standpipe, and St. John’s Lutheran Church. This tour includes St. John’s.
Welcome to the driving and biking tour of historic Evansville, sponsored by the Evansville Grove Society, Inc. and the Evansville Historic Preservation Commission.
One of the most significant intersections in Wisconsin, from the standpoint of architecture, is that of First and Main. At 39 West Main, on the southeast corner is the Eager Free Public Library, built in 1908 through the generosity of Almeron Eager, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. The building was designed in the Prairie style by Madison architects Claude & Starck, who were noted for their civic and religious buildings. The library was individually listed on the National Register in 1976.
At 103 West Main, on the southwest corner of Main and First is the residence and office of Dr. William Quivey, built before 1855 in the Greek Revival style. The façade is one of the finest of its type in the state.
At 44 West Main, the northeast corner of the intersection has the “Tower House”, built in the High Italianate Victorian style in 1881. The curved windows in the front bays are a very unusual feature. The Tower House, Evansville’s iconic Victorian home, was the home of Byron Campbell.
At 104 West Main, on the northwest corner is the Historic John M. Evans, Sr. House. It was built in 1884 for Dr. Evans, who is the city’s namesake. He arrived here in the 1840s in the midst of an epidemic, and provided medical services on something approaching heroic scale. In gratitude, residents named the town for him, saw to it he became the first postmaster, and elected him the first village president. His family conveyed the High Gothic Victorian residence to the Evansville Masonic Lodge in 1920. The north wing replaced a previous north wing and was put on by the lodge in 1921. Shannon Law Officers acquired the building and in 2017 began an exemplary restoration project, working with Daniel Stephans, an Evansville Architect.
The brick pavement on Main Street originally was installed in 1914. To make the street look more “up to date” the bricks were paved over with asphalt in 1962. When the street required complete rebuilding in 2006, an investigation found the original bricks were in excellent condition. The Grove Society assisted the City in submitting a successful grant application, and also conducted a private fund-raising drive, so that the bricks could be removed, cleaned, and reinstalled over a new concrete base, without cost to local taxpayers. The cleaning of the bricks was done by UW-Madison football players during their summer break, but bricklaying was done by professional contractors.
Proceed north on North First Street, and proceed to the T intersection with Grove Street.
Many fine Victorian homes, most constructed in the Queen Anne style, line North First Street. An Ante-bellum brick home, displaying a combination of Greek Revival and Italianate styles is found at the northeast corner of First Street and Montgomery Court, 42 Montgomery Court (Evansville Historic District). In the 1850s this was the home of Thomas Robinson.
St. Paul Roman Catholic Church is at the southeast corner of First Street and Garfield Avenue (Evansville Historic District). It was built in 1906 in a blend of Romanesque and Gothic Revival Styles. Its architect, William Meggott, and his wife were the first couple to be married in the church.
The original Evansville Historic District terminates north of Garfield Avenue, but the Grove Street Residential Historic District begins only a few yards to the north. Grove Street has a collection of distinctive early 20th Century houses.
At the end of North First Street, turn left onto Grove Street, the Grove Street Residential Historical District.
At 112 Grove Street is a Tudor Revival style home designed by the highly-regarded architect Grover Lippert of Madison. It was built in 1925, and features exceptional masonry work.
The Louis Spencer house at 116 Grove Street was the first home constructed on the block, in 1910. This is the finest Craftsman style home in Evansville, and was designed by William Meggott. Louis Spencer was a member of the second generation of the pioneer Spencer Family.
Two Bungalow style homes are located on the south side of the block. The most intact of these is at 133 Grove Street. Built in 1912, this house has a low-pitched cross-gabled roof.
The last house on the north side of the block is an excellent Colonial Revival style house built in 1922 for Paul Pullen, whose family was long associated with banking in Evansville.
Turn right onto Leonard Park Drive.
You have now entered Leonard-Leota Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as an Historic District. What we usually call the “Upper Park” was officially known as Leonard Park. In 1883, the Village of Evansville purchased about 3-1/2 acres from Levi Leonard, one of Evansville's first settlers, and the town's first school teacher, for a street and public park. The Village then purchased a strip of land from Lansing W. Mygatt, making the park about 8 acres in size. Final payment for the land was included in the Village budget of 1894.
At the bottom of the hill, bear right at the first intersection. Proceed toward the Bell Tower on the north side at 120 Antes Drive. A gravel parking area is found just to the east of the Henneberry Shelter opposite the Bell Tower.
The “Lower Park” officially was Leota Park, and encompasses the lake as well as the land lying to the east, and on either side of Allen Creek. The lake, also named “Leota”, was originally created in 1847 as a mill pond for the benefit of the old mill that once was located at what is now the corner of Railroad and Mill Streets in downtown Evansville. Remnants of the mill race can still be seen behind the stone shelter on your right.
The dam here was taken out at various times, and the area behind it then reverted to a meandering stream and wetland.
In 1910, Burr W. Jones, step-son of Levi Leonard, purchased 10 acres of land and deeded it to the City for park purposes. The City purchased 2 more acres for a right-of-way from the public road to the Jones property.
In 1911, the City Council voted to purchase 1.96 acres to connect Leonard Park with Leota Park.
The City purchased the lake bed in 1922.
The Lower Park was once swamp land. After the dam was reestablished in 1923, Leonard-Leota Park was created and the land here was drained and filled to become a recreational area. During the 1920s and ‘30s this became a very popular camping spot for residents and tourists. The bath house (now the Boy Scout house) immediately adjacent to the lake was built in 1924.
In 2008 the citizens of Evansville approved a referendum – by a 70% to 30% margin – to spend up to $2 million to dredge the lake bed and put the dam back in service. You see the result. In 2023, the dam needs substantial repairs.
The Rustic style stone masonry structures in the park were built during the Great Depression of the 1930s as work-relief projects. These include the stone retaining walls along the creek, the bell tower, the park store, the outdoor fireplaces, the stone tables and chairs, and the combination band stand and warming house on the south shore of the lake. The miniature stone houses on the islands in the stream are duck houses. The bell from Evansville’s first school house is located in the bell tower.
The projects were funded through a series of federal programs from 1933 to 1940 that allowed local men to be put to work, and local materials to be used. Local conservationist and civic leader Robert J. Antes secured the federal funding, and the road you are on, Antes Drive, is named after him.
The flag pole in front of the Boy Scout House was donated to the City in 1938 by the Woman’s Relief Corps – an auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic -- as a Civil War memorial. The pole was refurbished in 2013 under the direction of the Grove Society, and was rededicated for its 75th anniversary.
Proceed east on Antes Drive. At the “T” intersection, turn left to continue on Antes Drive. You may pull to the curb in front of the one-story brick building on the south side of the street or park in the paved lot.
The building to your right is now the museum and headquarters of the Evansville Grove Society, and also the office of Evansville Community Partnership. It was constructed on East Church Street in 1897 as the headquarters of the Baker Manufacturing Company, which has been doing business continuously since 1873. A new headquarters building was constructed by the company in 1940, and this building became a regional sales office. It was later sold to a local cooperative, which used it as a tire warehouse. The building has also served as a single-family residence and as a church.
In 1990, the Grove Society purchased the building with the stipulation that it be moved from its original site. On a memorable day in 2001, the building was moved here from the original location – by truck. The building was restored – mostly by painstaking volunteer labor – and placed back in service in 2010. It won a 2011 Historic Preservation Award from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.
The white frame building at the west end of the museum grounds is the last surviving tourist cabin frpm Leota Park. It was purchased by the City in 1938, and installed with several similar cabins to the north side of the Lower Ball Diamond. The original site was poorly drained, and the cabin was moved here in 2012 to permit the Grove Society to restore it and display it to visitors.
On the east side of the museum building is an original “Monitor” brand Baker windmill, donated to the Grove Society by Baker Manufacturing Company in 2010. It is an example of the mills sold by Baker from the 1920s through the late 1940s, and put in service throughout the world. Examples of earlier, wooden Baker mills may be found on display in the Eager Economy Store at 7 East Main Street in downtown Evansville. The Grove Society has an extensive collection of historic photos on display there as well.
Turn right onto North Madison Street and proceed south to the intersection of Madison and Main streets.
Evansville was first settled in 1839 by a handful of pioneers from La Porte, Indiana. The first structure – a log cabin – was built where the Union Bank & Trust Co. now stands. The location of the principal intersection in Evansville – that of Madison and Main Streets– is no accident. For as long as anyone can remember, this intersection has been called “the four corners.” The original public land survey done by the government in the 1833 divided the surrounding property into “quarter sections” that were purchased by different original owners. This intersection is the center of (T4N-R10E) Section 27 where the corners of the four “quarter sections” of Section 27 touch at the center of the intersection.
Evansville’s oldest commercial structure is the Historic Winston & Sons General Store, now Rock ‘N Rollz, on the southwest corner of the intersection. It predates the Civil War, and is the only survivor of a fire that destroyed the rest of the block in 1896.
Turn left onto East Main Street and proceed east to Union Street—just over the railroad tracks, the Evansville Historic District ends at Allen's Creek.
You are in the heart of the commercial portion of the original Evansville Historic District. Most of the buildings here were constructed between the 1870s and the 1890s. The newest building in the first block of East Main Street is the Eager Economy Store on the right, built in 1903. Architectural historians have said that downtown Evansville has one of the most intact, original streetscapes of any city in Wisconsin.
The bridge you pass over was dedicated only a short time ago as the “CCC Veterans Memorial Bridge”, as set forth on the State Historical Marker on the bridge wing wall to the left. The marker notes the service of a company of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the immediate vicinity during 1933.
The railroad arrived in Evansville in July 1863. The Historic Depot of the Chicago & North Western Railway is on the right. It was built in 1912, and served until 1977. It is now the local Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Turn right onto South Union Street and proceed south to Water Street. You are no longer in the Evansville Historic District.
This was once the warehouse district of Evansville, devoted largely to the storage and shipping of tobacco from nearby farms. A few of the warehouse buildings remain, though they are now sheathed in metal siding. The manufacturing complex of the Baker Manufacturing Company can be seen to the right, across the tracks.
Turn right onto Water Street, and again right onto Enterprise Street.
Baker Manufacturing is proud of its history, and has placed date plaques on its various buildings. The 1940 headquarters building is on the left, and the foundry buildings are located just behind it. The 3-story building on the right was constructed in 1903 as the first cast-in-place concrete structure in the state of Wisconsin. Baker is the country’s leading manufacturer of municipal and industrial pumps, but its products have ranged from toys to windmills to naval and military equipment.
At the end of the first block, turn left onto Church Street and proceed to Madison Street. West of Madison Street is in the Evansville Historic District.
City Hall, on your right at the intersection of Church and South Madison Streets, is a Richardsonian Romanesque style building constructed in 1892. An 1863 cannon, restored by the Grove Society, has been returned to the front lawn of City Hall to serve once again as the City’s principal Civil War memorial. City Hall is on the site of Evansville’s first school house. It was at the school house that the city’s first Civil War recruitment rally was held, on April 19, 1861.
The Methodist Church to the right was built in 1867. A stained glass window above the front door contains the initials “WCTU”, for Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This was a leading national organization that worked for abstinence from alcohol, and the prohibition of the sale of alcohol.
The Methodist Church and City Hall are two of the significant structures in the original Evansville Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. The Evansville Historic District is one of the largest in Wisconsin, and contains more than 300 contributing, historic structures. Only Mineral Point has an older National Register Historic District in the state. The Wisconsin Historical Society has said that Evansville contains the finest collection of 1840s to 1915 architecture of any small town in Wisconsin.
Proceed on West Church Street to the intersection with South Third Street, in the Evansville Historic District.
Church Street is appropriately named. On the left is the Grace Independent Baptist Church, originally the Free Will Baptist Church. It is the oldest extant church building in Evansville, built during 1854 to 1855 in the Greek Revival style. The Gothic Revival front portion was added in 1899.
On the northwest corner of the intersection with First Street is the Congregational United Church of Christ, a building first built in the late 1850s, and remodeled and expanded several times since then. The expanded building is constructed in the Gothic Revival style.
On the southwest corner is the Historic First Baptist Church, now the Oak Grove Church. It was built during 1893-94, and its designer, the local architect and master builder Caleb Snashall, was influenced by the churches of Chicago, which he saw when he visited the Columbian Exhibition there in 1893. Like City Hall, it is built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Just beyond the church, on the left hand side of the street, is the Sawtelle Residence, built in the 1880s. Its combination of architectural elements cause it to be classified as “Picturesque.”
When Evansville was first platted in 1855, Church Street was laid out as the principal connector between the Evansville Seminary, at the foot of the street, and the downtown. To the ire of the people attending church, Sunday mornings for some period of time saw horse races on Church Street from the seminary campus ahead of you down to the railroad depot at the east end of the street.
The home at 251 West Church Street features an unusual cross-gambrel roof, which suggests it may have been built from a pattern book of the kind popular from 1900 to the 1920s. This Colonial Revival style house was built in 1915.
Across the street at the northeast corner of Church and Third Streets is an Italianate house built in 1864 by pioneer builder Jacob West. He sold the dwelling to the Andrews family, whose children attended the Evansville Seminary. The daughters in the family became prominent in the social, business and civic affairs of the community.
Evansville’s Historic Districts are: (1) the Original Evansville Historic District, which generally encompasses Main Street from Allen's Creek on the east to South Fourth Street on the west, Church and Liberty Streets from Madison Street to South Fourth Street, and Garfield Avenue from Madison Street to North Second Street; (2) the South First Street Residential Historical District, which covers South First Street from the vicinity of the Highland Avenue intersection south to 443 First Street; (3) the Grove Street Residential Historic District, which covers Grove Street between North First and North Second Streets, and (4) Leonard-Leota Park.
In addition to the Historic Districts, Evansville has the following properties listed individually on the State and National Registers: The Eager Free Public Library, Leonard-Leota Park, The Eager Funerary Monument and Plot at Maple Hill Cemetery, The Evansville Standpipe, and St. John’s Lutheran Church. This tour includes St. John’s.
Welcome to the driving and biking tour of historic Evansville, sponsored by the Evansville Grove Society, Inc. and the Evansville Historic Preservation Commission.
One of the most significant intersections in Wisconsin, from the standpoint of architecture, is that of First and Main. At 39 West Main, on the southeast corner is the Eager Free Public Library, built in 1908 through the generosity of Almeron Eager, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. The building was designed in the Prairie style by Madison architects Claude & Starck, who were noted for their civic and religious buildings. The library was individually listed on the National Register in 1976.
At 103 West Main, on the southwest corner of Main and First is the residence and office of Dr. William Quivey, built before 1855 in the Greek Revival style. The façade is one of the finest of its type in the state.
At 44 West Main, the northeast corner of the intersection has the “Tower House”, built in the High Italianate Victorian style in 1881. The curved windows in the front bays are a very unusual feature. The Tower House, Evansville’s iconic Victorian home, was the home of Byron Campbell.
At 104 West Main, on the northwest corner is the Historic John M. Evans, Sr. House. It was built in 1884 for Dr. Evans, who is the city’s namesake. He arrived here in the 1840s in the midst of an epidemic, and provided medical services on something approaching heroic scale. In gratitude, residents named the town for him, saw to it he became the first postmaster, and elected him the first village president. His family conveyed the High Gothic Victorian residence to the Evansville Masonic Lodge in 1920. The north wing replaced a previous north wing and was put on by the lodge in 1921. Shannon Law Officers acquired the building and in 2017 began an exemplary restoration project, working with Daniel Stephans, an Evansville Architect.
The brick pavement on Main Street originally was installed in 1914. To make the street look more “up to date” the bricks were paved over with asphalt in 1962. When the street required complete rebuilding in 2006, an investigation found the original bricks were in excellent condition. The Grove Society assisted the City in submitting a successful grant application, and also conducted a private fund-raising drive, so that the bricks could be removed, cleaned, and reinstalled over a new concrete base, without cost to local taxpayers. The cleaning of the bricks was done by UW-Madison football players during their summer break, but bricklaying was done by professional contractors.
Proceed north on North First Street, and proceed to the T intersection with Grove Street.
Many fine Victorian homes, most constructed in the Queen Anne style, line North First Street. An Ante-bellum brick home, displaying a combination of Greek Revival and Italianate styles is found at the northeast corner of First Street and Montgomery Court, 42 Montgomery Court (Evansville Historic District). In the 1850s this was the home of Thomas Robinson.
St. Paul Roman Catholic Church is at the southeast corner of First Street and Garfield Avenue (Evansville Historic District). It was built in 1906 in a blend of Romanesque and Gothic Revival Styles. Its architect, William Meggott, and his wife were the first couple to be married in the church.
The original Evansville Historic District terminates north of Garfield Avenue, but the Grove Street Residential Historic District begins only a few yards to the north. Grove Street has a collection of distinctive early 20th Century houses.
At the end of North First Street, turn left onto Grove Street, the Grove Street Residential Historical District.
At 112 Grove Street is a Tudor Revival style home designed by the highly-regarded architect Grover Lippert of Madison. It was built in 1925, and features exceptional masonry work.
The Louis Spencer house at 116 Grove Street was the first home constructed on the block, in 1910. This is the finest Craftsman style home in Evansville, and was designed by William Meggott. Louis Spencer was a member of the second generation of the pioneer Spencer Family.
Two Bungalow style homes are located on the south side of the block. The most intact of these is at 133 Grove Street. Built in 1912, this house has a low-pitched cross-gabled roof.
The last house on the north side of the block is an excellent Colonial Revival style house built in 1922 for Paul Pullen, whose family was long associated with banking in Evansville.
Turn right onto Leonard Park Drive.
You have now entered Leonard-Leota Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as an Historic District. What we usually call the “Upper Park” was officially known as Leonard Park. In 1883, the Village of Evansville purchased about 3-1/2 acres from Levi Leonard, one of Evansville's first settlers, and the town's first school teacher, for a street and public park. The Village then purchased a strip of land from Lansing W. Mygatt, making the park about 8 acres in size. Final payment for the land was included in the Village budget of 1894.
At the bottom of the hill, bear right at the first intersection. Proceed toward the Bell Tower on the north side at 120 Antes Drive. A gravel parking area is found just to the east of the Henneberry Shelter opposite the Bell Tower.
The “Lower Park” officially was Leota Park, and encompasses the lake as well as the land lying to the east, and on either side of Allen Creek. The lake, also named “Leota”, was originally created in 1847 as a mill pond for the benefit of the old mill that once was located at what is now the corner of Railroad and Mill Streets in downtown Evansville. Remnants of the mill race can still be seen behind the stone shelter on your right.
The dam here was taken out at various times, and the area behind it then reverted to a meandering stream and wetland.
In 1910, Burr W. Jones, step-son of Levi Leonard, purchased 10 acres of land and deeded it to the City for park purposes. The City purchased 2 more acres for a right-of-way from the public road to the Jones property.
In 1911, the City Council voted to purchase 1.96 acres to connect Leonard Park with Leota Park.
The City purchased the lake bed in 1922.
The Lower Park was once swamp land. After the dam was reestablished in 1923, Leonard-Leota Park was created and the land here was drained and filled to become a recreational area. During the 1920s and ‘30s this became a very popular camping spot for residents and tourists. The bath house (now the Boy Scout house) immediately adjacent to the lake was built in 1924.
In 2008 the citizens of Evansville approved a referendum – by a 70% to 30% margin – to spend up to $2 million to dredge the lake bed and put the dam back in service. You see the result. In 2023, the dam needs substantial repairs.
The Rustic style stone masonry structures in the park were built during the Great Depression of the 1930s as work-relief projects. These include the stone retaining walls along the creek, the bell tower, the park store, the outdoor fireplaces, the stone tables and chairs, and the combination band stand and warming house on the south shore of the lake. The miniature stone houses on the islands in the stream are duck houses. The bell from Evansville’s first school house is located in the bell tower.
The projects were funded through a series of federal programs from 1933 to 1940 that allowed local men to be put to work, and local materials to be used. Local conservationist and civic leader Robert J. Antes secured the federal funding, and the road you are on, Antes Drive, is named after him.
The flag pole in front of the Boy Scout House was donated to the City in 1938 by the Woman’s Relief Corps – an auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic -- as a Civil War memorial. The pole was refurbished in 2013 under the direction of the Grove Society, and was rededicated for its 75th anniversary.
Proceed east on Antes Drive. At the “T” intersection, turn left to continue on Antes Drive. You may pull to the curb in front of the one-story brick building on the south side of the street or park in the paved lot.
The building to your right is now the museum and headquarters of the Evansville Grove Society, and also the office of Evansville Community Partnership. It was constructed on East Church Street in 1897 as the headquarters of the Baker Manufacturing Company, which has been doing business continuously since 1873. A new headquarters building was constructed by the company in 1940, and this building became a regional sales office. It was later sold to a local cooperative, which used it as a tire warehouse. The building has also served as a single-family residence and as a church.
In 1990, the Grove Society purchased the building with the stipulation that it be moved from its original site. On a memorable day in 2001, the building was moved here from the original location – by truck. The building was restored – mostly by painstaking volunteer labor – and placed back in service in 2010. It won a 2011 Historic Preservation Award from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.
The white frame building at the west end of the museum grounds is the last surviving tourist cabin frpm Leota Park. It was purchased by the City in 1938, and installed with several similar cabins to the north side of the Lower Ball Diamond. The original site was poorly drained, and the cabin was moved here in 2012 to permit the Grove Society to restore it and display it to visitors.
On the east side of the museum building is an original “Monitor” brand Baker windmill, donated to the Grove Society by Baker Manufacturing Company in 2010. It is an example of the mills sold by Baker from the 1920s through the late 1940s, and put in service throughout the world. Examples of earlier, wooden Baker mills may be found on display in the Eager Economy Store at 7 East Main Street in downtown Evansville. The Grove Society has an extensive collection of historic photos on display there as well.
Turn right onto North Madison Street and proceed south to the intersection of Madison and Main streets.
Evansville was first settled in 1839 by a handful of pioneers from La Porte, Indiana. The first structure – a log cabin – was built where the Union Bank & Trust Co. now stands. The location of the principal intersection in Evansville – that of Madison and Main Streets– is no accident. For as long as anyone can remember, this intersection has been called “the four corners.” The original public land survey done by the government in the 1833 divided the surrounding property into “quarter sections” that were purchased by different original owners. This intersection is the center of (T4N-R10E) Section 27 where the corners of the four “quarter sections” of Section 27 touch at the center of the intersection.
Evansville’s oldest commercial structure is the Historic Winston & Sons General Store, now Rock ‘N Rollz, on the southwest corner of the intersection. It predates the Civil War, and is the only survivor of a fire that destroyed the rest of the block in 1896.
Turn left onto East Main Street and proceed east to Union Street—just over the railroad tracks, the Evansville Historic District ends at Allen's Creek.
You are in the heart of the commercial portion of the original Evansville Historic District. Most of the buildings here were constructed between the 1870s and the 1890s. The newest building in the first block of East Main Street is the Eager Economy Store on the right, built in 1903. Architectural historians have said that downtown Evansville has one of the most intact, original streetscapes of any city in Wisconsin.
The bridge you pass over was dedicated only a short time ago as the “CCC Veterans Memorial Bridge”, as set forth on the State Historical Marker on the bridge wing wall to the left. The marker notes the service of a company of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the immediate vicinity during 1933.
The railroad arrived in Evansville in July 1863. The Historic Depot of the Chicago & North Western Railway is on the right. It was built in 1912, and served until 1977. It is now the local Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Turn right onto South Union Street and proceed south to Water Street. You are no longer in the Evansville Historic District.
This was once the warehouse district of Evansville, devoted largely to the storage and shipping of tobacco from nearby farms. A few of the warehouse buildings remain, though they are now sheathed in metal siding. The manufacturing complex of the Baker Manufacturing Company can be seen to the right, across the tracks.
Turn right onto Water Street, and again right onto Enterprise Street.
Baker Manufacturing is proud of its history, and has placed date plaques on its various buildings. The 1940 headquarters building is on the left, and the foundry buildings are located just behind it. The 3-story building on the right was constructed in 1903 as the first cast-in-place concrete structure in the state of Wisconsin. Baker is the country’s leading manufacturer of municipal and industrial pumps, but its products have ranged from toys to windmills to naval and military equipment.
At the end of the first block, turn left onto Church Street and proceed to Madison Street. West of Madison Street is in the Evansville Historic District.
City Hall, on your right at the intersection of Church and South Madison Streets, is a Richardsonian Romanesque style building constructed in 1892. An 1863 cannon, restored by the Grove Society, has been returned to the front lawn of City Hall to serve once again as the City’s principal Civil War memorial. City Hall is on the site of Evansville’s first school house. It was at the school house that the city’s first Civil War recruitment rally was held, on April 19, 1861.
The Methodist Church to the right was built in 1867. A stained glass window above the front door contains the initials “WCTU”, for Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This was a leading national organization that worked for abstinence from alcohol, and the prohibition of the sale of alcohol.
The Methodist Church and City Hall are two of the significant structures in the original Evansville Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. The Evansville Historic District is one of the largest in Wisconsin, and contains more than 300 contributing, historic structures. Only Mineral Point has an older National Register Historic District in the state. The Wisconsin Historical Society has said that Evansville contains the finest collection of 1840s to 1915 architecture of any small town in Wisconsin.
Proceed on West Church Street to the intersection with South Third Street, in the Evansville Historic District.
Church Street is appropriately named. On the left is the Grace Independent Baptist Church, originally the Free Will Baptist Church. It is the oldest extant church building in Evansville, built during 1854 to 1855 in the Greek Revival style. The Gothic Revival front portion was added in 1899.
On the northwest corner of the intersection with First Street is the Congregational United Church of Christ, a building first built in the late 1850s, and remodeled and expanded several times since then. The expanded building is constructed in the Gothic Revival style.
On the southwest corner is the Historic First Baptist Church, now the Oak Grove Church. It was built during 1893-94, and its designer, the local architect and master builder Caleb Snashall, was influenced by the churches of Chicago, which he saw when he visited the Columbian Exhibition there in 1893. Like City Hall, it is built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Just beyond the church, on the left hand side of the street, is the Sawtelle Residence, built in the 1880s. Its combination of architectural elements cause it to be classified as “Picturesque.”
When Evansville was first platted in 1855, Church Street was laid out as the principal connector between the Evansville Seminary, at the foot of the street, and the downtown. To the ire of the people attending church, Sunday mornings for some period of time saw horse races on Church Street from the seminary campus ahead of you down to the railroad depot at the east end of the street.
The home at 251 West Church Street features an unusual cross-gambrel roof, which suggests it may have been built from a pattern book of the kind popular from 1900 to the 1920s. This Colonial Revival style house was built in 1915.
Across the street at the northeast corner of Church and Third Streets is an Italianate house built in 1864 by pioneer builder Jacob West. He sold the dwelling to the Andrews family, whose children attended the Evansville Seminary. The daughters in the family became prominent in the social, business and civic affairs of the community.