Historic Structures

Wye House Mansion, Easton Maryland

Wye House, built in 1781-84 and achieving its final form by 1799, is an outstanding example of a large Southern frame plantation house. Possibly designed by Robert Key, architect and carpenter of Annapolis, Wye House is a seven-part Roman Country House composition, and it illustrates the transition in style from late Georgian to Early Federal architecture. Construction of Wye House, built for Edward Lloyd IV (1744-96), a wealthy Maryland planter, began about 1781, and the central block and two detached dependencies were completed in 1784. Robert Key, a carpenter of Annapolis, worked on the house between 1781 and 1798 and may have also been the designer of the plan. By 1799, the house had assumed its original and present seven-part form: the two detached pavilions had been connected to the central block by means of small one-story hyphens and two one-story end units had been added to the sides of the pavilions. The portico on the south, or front, elevation and the large veranda on the north, or garden, facade had also been added by 1799. The plantation has been in the possession of the Lloyd family since 1658.

Doughoregan Manor, Ellicott City Maryland

Doughoregan Manor, was the country home from 1766 to 1832 of Charles Carroll III of Carollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence for Maryland, planter, landowner, politician, and U.S. Senator. The Georgian brick plantation house, built about 1727, was greatly enlarged and remodelled in the Greek Revival Style in the 1830's. His favorite country home, Charles Carroll is buried in the family chapel attached to the north end of the mansion. Charles Carroll,III, was born at Annapolis, Maryland, September 19, 1737, into a wealthy Roman Catholic family. He was educated by the Society of Jesus in Maryland; he attended the College de St. Omer in French Flanders from 1748 to 1752 and the College de Louis le Grand in Parish from 1753 to 1757. He then went to London for several years, where he continued the study of civil law that he had begun in France. In 1765, at the age of 28, Carroll returned to Maryland and took up the development of the 10,000 acre tract in Frederick County located at the mouth of the Monocary River and known as Carrollton Manor, which his father made over to him at this time. Here in a farmhouse he erected near present-day Buckeytown, Charles Carroll lived the life of a country gentleman of property. In 1765 he began the practice of adding of Carrollton to his name to distinguish himself from his father and cousins of the same name.

Green Gables - Fleishhacker House, Woodside California

Significant as a masterwork, a house and landscape planned as a unified composition by one person, Charles Sumner Greene of the famous architectural firm Greene and Greene, for one patron, Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Fleishhacker, and kept intact by (so far) three generations of their family. A museum catalogue has said, Green Gables bespeaks a gracious yet comfortable manner of living, but its particular beauty derives from its harmonious relationship with the land, always a special forte of Charles [Greene]. Here it is a sublime creation.(1) In relation to its area, San Mateo County and the Santa Clara Valley of California, Green Gables can claim the earliest roof of shingles imitating thatch, the first free-form swimming pool, one of the first buildings surfaced with gunite, and the last great estate with land, use and ownership intact.(2) The historic owners, Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. and Mortimer Fleishhacker Jr., were significant figures in Northern California banking and industry and in San Francisco cultural, charitable and philanthropic organizations. Sketches and correspondence in the Documents Collection of the College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley, testify to the relationship of this architect and client, and show some of their design decision process. The largest of all Greene and Greene designs, the Fleishhacker estate concept developed vast, formal gardens to contrast with the natural chaparral of the rolling, mountainous site.

Carson House - Ingomar Club, Eureka California

Technically, this house is the second Carson House, built for William McKendrie Carson in 1885. The first Carson House was a less ambitious residence, across the street from the second great mansion. Carson came to California in 1849. He was part owner of a flour mill in the 1860's and went into lumber. Finally making a more concerted program of mill development, Carson formed a partnership with Dolbeer; their first mill was at the site of the present Carson House. The firm prospered and Carson became one of the leading citizens of Northern California, (Dolbeer and Carson were the third largest exporters of lumber in Eureka throughout the later 1860's and 1870's). It is usually related that the lumber business was at a low ebb in 1885, and William Carson determined on a massive personal project to employ his temporarily inactive employees. Most of the craftsmen employed on the mansion were practitioners of related trades at the mill - carpenters, carvers, plumbers, etc.

Dearing House, Tuscaloosa Alabama

The Dearing House was built for Alexander B. Dearing (b. 1800) North Carolina, a prominent Tuscaloosa merchant and brother of Capt. James Dearing. One of Alexander Dearing's daughters married Dr. W. S. Wyman and lived in the house before and after the Civil War. Legend tells that Union raiders spared the house in 1865 after the mistress of the house fed her last setting of turkey eggs to hungry soldiers who appeared at her door. Major James Spence purchased the house in 1888 and in 1919 the S. G. Swain family moved in. This two-story brick and stucco Greek Revival residence features an Ionic columned portico extending about three sides. The interior features a circular staircase, elaborate friezes and black Italian marble mantles.

Medford Soo Line Railroad Depot, Medford Wisconsin

The Medford Centennial Book states that more than any other factor, ...The Wisconsin Central Railroad had the greatest influence on the why and wherefore of Medford's uptown and downtown locations... it seeded the mushroom which spread into a hamlet and later a city. As the first rail line into northern Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Central deserves special attention. Incorporated in 1871, WC's first division of railroad to penetrate the northern frontier was a 65-mile stretch from Menasha to Stevens Point. Under the financial leadership of eastern capitalist Gardner Colby, the company acquired more than 837,000 acres under a federal land grant. In exchange for free land, WC's obligation was to be the first company to link the shore of Lake Superior with the southern part of the State. Most historians agree that the WC was organized for the purpose of acquiring the wilderness lands, because the railroad promoters sold the land to lumbermen as soon as they had acquired it. The lands north of Stevens Point were often referred to as The Pinery and were sparsely settled in the early 1870's. Thus, construction of the Wisconsin Central through the north country generally preceded settlement by Europeans. Like many northern Wisconsin towns, Medford owes its origins to the Wisconsin Central Railroad. The WC began laying rails northwest of Stevens Point in early 1872, completing its line as far as Colby in September of that year. At the same time, crews cleared a path north to the Black River. The first train passed through what now is Medford in July, and the first depot was erected in September of 1873. W.B. Jeffers, the first depot agent, and two other persons were the sole permanent residents of Medford in the winter of 1873. The name Medford was selected to recognize the home town in Massachusetts of one of the railroad's investors. In the Spring of 1874, the Wisconsin Central built a 7-room guest house for prospective German and Swiss buyers of railroad farm lands. This immigrant house located near what is now Main and Lincoln Streets in Medford may have been the only instance of the railroad company giving free shelter to prospective land buyers. Wisconsin Central donated a 316' x 500' land parcel just east of the depot to Taylor County for the site of the Taylor County Courthouse.

Tulip Hill House, Galesville Maryland

Tulip Hill, located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, approximately 2.5 miles west of Galesville on State Route 468, is a finely designed and little altered example of an early Southern Georgian brick plantation house. Erected in 1755-56, its basic plan and design are typical of the great Georgian mansions of mid-century, but its experimental approach to late Georgian formality in certain decorative features gives it distinctive character which adds interest to its detail. With the wings and hyphens added between 1787-90, Tulip Hill is also a very distinguished example of a five-part composition country house. Sitting on a rise of land, the impressive approach to the house from the river by a tree lined lane through the meadows and into the terraced garden exists today as it did over 200 years ago, maintaining the original site and environment. This offers today's visitor much the same impression as it did in the eighteenth century. Samuel Galloway, Quaker merchant-planter, purchased the old Talbot patent of 'Poplar Knowle, 260 acres with water frontage on West River and Browns Creek, in 1755. He renamed the property Tulip Hill, retaining in this new name the distinctive feature of the grove of grand tulip poplar trees, many still standing with ages up to 300 years. Letters reveal that the central block was well underway in 1755-56, under the direction of John Deavour. The architect is unknown, but the interior floor plan of the house bears a close relationship to Stenton, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, built by Galloway's Quaker friend, James Logan. The interior of Tulip Hill has been attributed to the young carver, William Buckland, on the basis of motif and a reference in a document that Galloway borrowed a carver from Gunston Hall, where Buckland is known to have been working at the time, but no firm evidence has been found to fully substantiate this theory. In 1787-90 John Galloway, Samuel's son, enlarged Tulip Hill into its final and present five-part form by adding two end wings, two connecting curtains, and also the present portico on the north (land) front of the central block. The plantation house remained in the possession of the Galloway family until 1886. After passing through several ownerships, the mansion was rehabilitated.

Gipfel Brewery - Union Brewery, Milwaukee Wisconsin

A nineteenths-century historian, whose account may well have been based on conversations with Charles Gipfel, states that the first Gipfel brewery building on this site was erected in 1843, but that the present one was constructed ten years later. The building was constructed either for David Gipfel or for his older son Carl Wilhelm (Charles). Family ownership of the property dates back to June 30, 1843, when David Gipfel purchased the lot from Daniel and Cordelia Brown for $400.00. He added adjoining property to his holdings with the purchase from Harvey Birchard on November 25, 1845. It is documented that the Gipfels operated a small brewery on this site during the 1840's. By 1851 at the latest, Charles Gipfel had assumed control of the firm, which he called the Union Brewery, and he remained in business here through the late nineteenth century--at various times as a brewer, a saloonkeeper, and a dealer in wine and liquor.

Arlington Place - Munger Mansion, Birmingham Alabama

The land and area that surrounds what is now Arlington House was originally deeded by Captain William Ely to the newly created Jefferson County. As an agent for the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, he came to Alabama with the intent of building a school on the present site of the house. Originally know as Frog level, the State Legislature renamed the area Elyton in honor of Captain William Ely. Once Elyton was incorporated, it was established in 1820 as the seat of Jefferson County. At this time the courthouse was removed from Carrollsville, near the present Town of Powderly, to the more centrally located Elyton. This is where it remained until Birmingham was founded. An early report on courthouses in Alabama describes the placement of Elyton: Elyton was the crossing place of two important stage lines connecting north and south Alabama and eastern and western parts of the state. Later progress brought the crossing of two railroads to this area and it was this connection which led to the creation of the City of Birmingham. Two portions of the original land grant were purchased by William 0. Tarrant on February 19, 1821, and John Burford, Jr. & Sr., on March 5, 1821. One year later in 1822, Stephen Hall purchased both, constituting approximately 475 acres of land.

Montpelier - Snowden House, Laurel Maryland

Montpelier is by far the grandest of the many Snowden family homesteads built in the Laurel area from the time of the first Snowden settler, ca. 1690, to the late-18th century. A wealthy, Quaker family, they developed and dominated the local economy for over a century. Richard Snowden, later referred to as Richard the immigrant, came from Birmingham, England, to Maryland ca. 1658. He later received grants of land in this area, settling on a portion of it (located in the current Howard County) ca. 1690. His residence was known as Birmingham Manor for his original home. Upon his death, the Birmingham Manor property passed on to his son, Richard Snowden II, also known as Captain Richard Snowden. Richard continued to increase the family landholdings here until they totalled approximately 27,000 acres spanning Prince Georges, Montgomery, Anne Arundel and Howard counties. It was Richard II that started the Snowden or Patuxent Iron Works in 1735, was the first iron works in the state. His property upon his death was passed on to his son, Richard III, often referred to as the Iron Master. From him, that portion of the extensive Snowden family holdings on which Montpelier was to be erected passed onto one of his sons, Thomas. Thomas Snowden I (1722-1770) was, for many years, credited with the construction of Montpelier, originally believed to have been erected ca. 1740. However, architectural historians now believe that, based on the style and detailing of the house, it was built between 1770-1785. The two firebacks in the house give the date of 1783, which may have been the official year of completion of the main block of the house. The hyphenated wings were added later, in 1794-1795.

Gunston Hall, Mason Neck, Lorton Virginia

Gunston Hall was the home of George Mason, gentleman, planter, and constitutional theorist, a man as influential as any other in building the theoretical underpinnings of the American Revolution and of the Constitution of 1787. He was a model member of the landed gentry, serving on the bench, in the parish vestry, in the Assembly, as well as in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. George Mason (1725-1792) was the fourth of that name and line in Virginia, his forebearer having settled on 900 acres in the Northern Neck of Virginia on a grant dated 1655. By the time the fourth George Mason came into his inheritance, there were 5,000 acres in the estate. Because of the early death of his father, he was under the guardianship of his mother, Ann Thomson Mason, and his uncle, John Mercer of Marlborough. Mason's early years were spent in Mercer's library which was rich in the law, accounting for Mason's wide legal knowledge throughout his later career.

Chase Lloyd House, Annapolis Maryland

Brice House, Annapolis Maryland

The Brice House was constructed in 1766-73 for Colonel James Brice, who was soon to gain fame as a soldier during the Revolution. The architect is unknown but there is evidence that William Buckland, who arrived in Annapolis in 1771 and died in 1774, worked on the interiors of the house. The residence remained in the possession of the Brice heirs until 1874. After passing through the hands of several owners, the house was purchased by St. John's College in the 1920s and used as a faculty residence. The building was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley S. Wohl in 1953 and carefully restored between 1953 and 1957. Standing on a high terrace above the street, the Brice House is a fivepart composition 156-feet long. It is comprised of a two-and-a-halfstory central block over an elevated basement--about 52-feet wide and 45-feet deep—two one-and-a-half-story hyphens, each 27-feet long and 18-feet deep, and two symmetrical one-and-a-half-story wings, each 26-feet wide and 45-feet deep, built at right angles to the main axis. The end wings project about 22-feet forward (south) of the street facade of the main block. Each section has a steep gable roof; the roofs of the hyphens and end wings are dormered. At each end of the central block a wide, chimney rises high above the roof, capped with a corbelled brick course. The wings also have a set of wide, thin, but lower chimneys.

Hammond-Harwood House, Annapolis Maryland

Filoli - Bourn-Roth Estate, Woodside California

William Bowers Bourn II, the original owner of Filoli, was born in San Francisco in 1857. Following his father's death in 1874, he developed the family's Empire Mine at Grass Valley. Bourn married and had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Maud, who died in 1929, leaving two children from her marriage. Bourn became president of the San Francisco Gas Company and the Spring Valley Water Company. The large Greystone Winery near St. Helena in Napa County was also built for him. Mr. Bourn later bought the fabled Lakes of Killarney, a 16,000-acre Muchross estate in Ireland for his daughter and son-in-law. In 1932 this was donated to the Irish Free State. William Bourn was confined to his estate after being stricken with paralysis in 1922. Bourn was a philosopher who extolled the virtues of constructive conservatism and the works of Goethe and Browning. Under titles like Thoughts on Character, Bourn wrote articles for his company's periodicals.

Wisconsin Central Freight Station (Chicago Great Western), Minneapolis Minnesota

Because the riverfront in Minneapolis along the Mississippi River was crowded with existing railroad tracts and industrial buildings by the late nineteenth century, the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, which was desirous of trackage into the city had few choices of where to build facilities in Minneapolis. The Wisconsin Central Company, a predecessor of the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, had been operating in Wisconsin between northern Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Chicago since 1870 hauling timber and ore from northern Wisconsin to market cities on Lake Michigan. After financial difficulties in the 1890s, it was reorganized between 1898-1900 as the Wisconsin Central Railway Company. It owned only 28 miles of trackage in Minnesota. The Wisconsin Central Railway Company had been leasing the rails of Minnesota carriers, such as the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, to ship cattle from Montana and grain and flour from the Twin Cities through Minneapolis and St. Paul to Manitowoc, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Although this arrangement worked well, high trackage rentals and increasing business prompted the Wisconsin Central Railway Company in 1901 to build terminal facilities of its own in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The company, therefore, acquired two Minneapolis parcels for their use near the Mississippi River. Between 1901-1903, it built a large yard terminal on Boom Island north of Nicollet Island nearby the present freight station. The Boom Island yard was improved from low swampy land in the middle of the river. Improvements included fill, a stone retaining wall around the island, a rail yard which could accommodate over 300 cars, a roundhouse, coaling plant, ice houses, and limited repair facilities.

Dungeness - Carnegie Family Mansion, St Marys - Cumberland Island Georgia

This mansion was built in 1884 as the Carnegie Family (of Carnegie Steel) Retreat. The home measures approximately 120 feet by 50 feet and is two and a half stories. The estate included a large recreation building with a swimming pool and various game rooms. Stables, water tower, barns and tenant houses were also on the property. Cumberland Island, Georgia's largest barrier island, has a long history entwined with its many different inhabitants. Evidence endures in a variety of remains and ruins, which are open to the public visitation via the National Park Service. The Dungeness ruins is what is left of a 59-room mansion built by Thomas Carnegie (brother of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie) and his wife Lucy in the 1880s. This mansion was part of a large and lavish winter estate for the Carnegie family, which included pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings. A fire in 1959 reduced the mansion to ruins.

Wiessner Brewery - American Brewery, Baltimore Maryland

In 1853, ten years prior to the American Civil War, John F. Weissner (1831- 1897) arrived from Uhlfeld, Bavaria. He worked for several years in Baltimore before being hired to work at the brewery owned by George Rost. This is where Weissner became a brewmaster along side of his brother-in-law George Baurenschmidt, who would later prosper with his own brewery. In In 1862 Weissner returned to Bavaria to discuss with his family the plans to open his own brewery. A year later he returned with some money and family approval to build his own brewery. Levi and Henry Strauss, then in the malting business, extended Weissner credit for starting up his. Weissner opened his brewery, in 1863, and added his brewery to the twenty-one already in operation throughout Baltimore. The brewery was built on part of the estate known as Greenwood, originally established by Philip Rogers in 1807. It was Charles Rogers, grandson of Philip, who leased Weissner two acres and a dairy farm for his brewery site, which fronted Belair Avenue. It is reported that the brewery skirmished with Union soldiers who mooched the beer being produced.

Wiedemann Brewing Company, Newport Kentucky

The Wiedemann Brewing Company was founded by George Wiedemann. He immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1853. Initially living in New York State and after spending some time in Louisville, Kentucky, he moved to Cincinnati in 1855 when he entered the brewery business. In 1860, Mr. Wiedemann joined with John Kaufman in building a brewery on Vine Street in Cincinnati where he was appointed the foreman. In 1870 he became a partner with John Butcher, who was operating a small brewery on Jefferson Street in Newport, Kentucky. The business began to grow and soon became recognized as a major brewery in northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. In 1878 Wiedemann acquired the entire brewery and he continued to expand its operation. Over the years various buildings were constructed to meet the needs of the growing operation. In 1888 and 1889 construction of modern facilities was undertaken when several buildings were constructed including the Hops Storage building and the Malt House. With increase production capacity, the brewery began to command a greater share of the market. During the period before the turn of the century, Wiedemann acquired several smaller breweries. With these acquitions, the brewery established itself as the major brewery serving northern Kentucky. During the years, Mr. Wiedemann brought his two son's into the business. His eldest son, Charles, was sent to Munich in 1876-77 to learn the latest European brewing techniques. Upon his return, he was sent to Milwaukee to learn the developing brewing techniques being undertaken by America's leading brewers. He rejoined his father as Superintendent, then as Vice-President. With the death of his father, he was appointed President in 1890. He continued the distinctive brewing tradition with increased modernization, establishment of new markets, and attention to the quality of the beer.

Gebhard Brewery, Morris Illinois

The Gebhard Brewery consists of the Brewing House and Warehouse Building and the Bottling Plant. The Brewing House and Warehouse Building was erected about 1896 with additions constructed over the next decade. The Brewing House section rises four stories in height and, like the rest of the building, contains a steel frame with common-bond brick walls. The Brewing House and Warehouse Building measures approximately 80' x 60'. None of the brewing equipment remains. The Bottling Plant was erected ca. 1900 and consists of a two-and-one-half-story brick building with an interior wood frame. The building measures approximately 60' x 30' and has a gable roof and a stone foundation. Originally a one-and-one-half story brick building, the Gebhard Brewery, located on West Washington Street near Nettle Creek, was started in 1866 by Louis Gebhard. Gebhard's enterprise was successful, and by 1896 he had erected a large brick and steel building to replace the original building. The new building contained a large brewing room complete with a copper vat. Grain was prepared on the upper floors of the five-story brewing house. Less than ten years later a large brick and steel addition was built off the north facade of the brewing house. Another addition to the brewery, built at the same time, consisted of a two-and-one-half story brick and timber building which served as a bottling plant. William Gebhard succeeded his father in the business and used the wealth generated by the brewery to construct homes and commercial buildings in Morris. The Gebhard family eventually had the most extensive land holdings in the town.