Main Street Historic District (Fort Atkinson) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Main Street Historic District
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 Location in Wisconsin
Location in the United States
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| Location | Roughly Main St. from Sherman Ave. to S. 3rd St., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin |
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| NRHP reference No. | 84003683 |
| Added to NRHP | June 7, 1984 |
The Main Street Historic District in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, is a special area recognized for its old and important buildings. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. This district includes 51 buildings located on or very close to Main Street.
Even though many of the shops on the ground floor have been updated over the years, you can still see the original fancy brick designs on the upper parts of most buildings.
History of Main Street
Main Street is the oldest street in Fort Atkinson. It was once part of a military road that connected Fort Dearborn (in what is now Chicago) to Fort Winnebago (in Wisconsin). The first European settlers arrived in the 1830s. They built their homes on both sides of the Rock River. Soon after, a wooden bridge was built to connect North and South Main Streets.
From the 1840s to the 1870s, most of the stores on Main Street were made of wood. They had wide, shingled roofs that stuck out, held up by wooden posts. But in the 1880s, these small wooden shops were replaced. The buildings you see today are mostly two or three stories tall and made of local cream-colored brick. They have fancy decorations like cornices (decorative tops) and dentils (small block-like shapes). Canvas awnings took the place of the old wooden canopies.
Main Street Bridge Story
Three different bridges have crossed the Rock River at this spot. Before the first bridge was built in 1843, people and wagons had to either cross the river by walking through the shallow parts or be carried across by a ferry. The city's founder, Dwight Foster, ran the first ferry service using rafts and dugout canoes.
The very first bridge was a simple wooden structure. Local pioneers built it using whatever materials they could find. In 1870, a stronger iron bridge was built to replace it, costing $9,400. Another iron bridge was built in 1881. In 1909, this bridge was made wider and had a raised bandstand in the middle, shaped like a stockade. The concrete bridge that stands there today was built in 1917.
Cool Buildings to See
The Main Street Historic District has many interesting buildings. Here are a few notable ones:
- The Albert Winslow Grocery at 131 N Main St was built in 1857. It's a three-story brick building with an Italianate style, which means it has fancy metal decorations above the windows called lintels. The ground floor was a grocery store. The third floor had a meeting hall for the International Organisation of Good Templars, a group that promoted healthy living. Albert Winslow's brother had a doctor's office in the building, and the town's first bank started on the second floor.
- The Langholf Hotel and Saloon at 225-229 S Main St was built in 1875. This two-story cream brick building has a decorative brick cornice. It was also known as the Farmer's Home Hotel and served as a place where people could rent rooms for a longer time. It's the only hotel building left in Fort Atkinson from the 1800s.
- The Hahnemann Lodge at 100 N Main St was built in 1883. It's a two-story brick building with decorative corner stones called quoins and fancy window hoods. It housed a grocery store for many years and later a fur and clothing store. In its early days, it was also home to the Hahnemann Lodge, a German-speaking group of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a friendly society.
- The IOOF Lodge #24 at 201 S. Main St was built in 1884. This two-story brick building on a corner has a large arched cornice and excellent brickwork. The first floor was a grocery store. Above that, it hosted meetings for groups like the Knights of Pythias and the English Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
- The W.D. Hoard Publishing Co. at 28 Milwaukee Ave W is a smaller office building. It's a one-story cream brick building in a Neoclassical style, designed by George Bowman Ferry. It was built in 1908 and is where Hoard's Dairyman magazine is still published today.
- The Creamery Package Manufacturing Co. at 201 N Main St is a large, five-story factory built in 1919. It's made of reinforced concrete and was designed in the 20th Century Commercial style. This company started in 1866 making butter churns. It grew to become the world's largest dairy equipment company by 1917, making machines for pasteurizing milk, cream ripeners, and bottle washers. It employed 400 people in Fort Atkinson.
- The Municipal Building at 111 N Main St was built in 1929. It was designed by James Law in a Neoclassical style. This building housed city offices, a gym, a stage, and the police and fire departments.
