39 West Liberty Street
The house at 39 West Liberty Street is a marvelous example of Italianate design, inspired by 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which first appeared in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century and became very popular in the United States from the late 1840s to the 1890s. The Evansville inventor and industrialist Allen S. Baker built the house in 1883. Since then it has belonged to just four families and now is under the stewardship of John and Kim Otto, who have done significant restoration work on it since they occupied it in 1990.
Allen S. Baker is one of the leading names in Evansville History. He was born in Evansville in 1842. He apprenticed as a blacksmith and enlisted in the Union Army at the onset of the Civil War, when he as 19 years old. He was wounded twice, at Gainesville and at Gettysburg. He met Margaret Sayers while recovering from the first injury, corresponded with her through the remainder of the war, and married her in 1865.
That year Baker bought the property at the southeast corner of First and Liberty Streets on which the house stands. He built an addition to that house in 1877.
Six years later, to accommodate a growing family, Baker moved the house to another lot on South First Street and built the present home on the Liberty Street corner. This house was one of nine that went up on Liberty Street in that year.
Baker was extremely successful in business. He bought an existing blacksmithy on West Main Street in 1866 and in 1872 bought land and built another smithy across the street. He developed a steam engine and, together with five other investors, incorporated the Baker Manufacturing Company to produce it. Baker Manufacturing is still in business today at the original location; it became famous for designing, patenting and selling pumps and windmills, examples of which may be found around the world to this day. In 1887 the company built Evansville’s first electric power plant, installed wires and poles for streetlights, and brought electricity to 150 private homes. The company was famous for its civic-mindedness and its honorable treatment of employees.
Baker Manufacturing was the subject of the Grove Society’s “History in the Park” program in 2024. A synopsis of the program may be found on the Grove Society Website.
In 1898 Allen Baker organized a local telephone company for Evansville and became its first president. He served as Rock County Supervisor for Evansville and was active in the Congregational Church, and the Evansville Improvement Association. He served in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican during the 1905 and 1907 sessions. He died in 1916.
39 West Liberty was a hub for Evansville social life. Baker’s daughter Elsie married Robert Hartley in the house in 1895; the couple lived in the house with the Baker family for the next 21 years. The Lloyd Hubbard family, which purchased the house thereafter, made the upper story into two apartments in 1949, to meet the nationwide demand for housing in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Hubbards sold the house to Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Pickett, who kept it until they sold it to the Ottos in 1990.
The Otto family moved into the house in 1990. John Otto had lived in a historic home in Janesville. In 2001 John and Kim began the process of restoring the building to a single-family home as their oldest child, Seth, reached the age of 11. They rebuilt the upper story around a hallway that they built around an archway made with bricks from the original fireplace. They built spindles and a newel post for the second-floor hallway, turned a closet into a prayer room, and built a master bath out of the old kitchen/bath efficiency.
Many original features of the house survive, including the original wood trim, baseboards, crown molding and the wooden blinds in the living room. There are many unique doorknobs throughout the house. Especially noteworthy are the original light fixtures in each room, each one of them a work of art. Of particular interest are the crystal chandelier in the dining room downstairs, the Steuben chandelier over the rebuilt stairwell, and the Quezal chandelier in the living room. The second floor retains the original parquet flooring. Here and there are samples of the original wallpaper, which the Ottos have framed and mounted in several places on the second floor. The house has four porches and a great many nooks and crannies for contemplation and visiting.
Visitors are encouraged to walk in the home’s yard and gardens, which have seen parties, weddings, and celebrations since the house was built. During the restoration the Ottos unearthed two of three original cement ponds in the back yard. One is now an herb garden, while the other is a functioning pond with a waterfall that can be seen from the ground floor and upstairs porches at the back of the house. There is a memory garden for their son Jacob, who died as an infant. The Oprah Winfrey Show featured the yard as part of its “backyard makeovers” series in 2001. The yard’s history goes back through generations to the Baker family, and is very meaningful to the current occupants.
The Ottos enjoy talking with visitors about the house and will be on hand to welcome people on the House Tour. “Every bit is a labor of love,” says Kim Otto.