Three buildings on West Main Street, located in the Evansville National Register Historic District, illustrate the stylistic progression of Wisconsin’s 19th-century commercial buildings.

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1-5 West Main Street

Evansville, Wisconsin. Buildings prior to rehabilitation. View the property record: AHI 84956

On the corner, 1 West Main was constructed first, circa 1852, before Evansville was even platted. The building had a pediment and a denticulated cornice; features that denote the Greek Revival style.

Later, 3 West Main was built in the Italianate style, which was extremely fashionable in the last half of the 1800s. It is represented in the tall narrow windows and prominent cornice.

Toward the end of the 19th century, 5 West Main was built in the newly emerging Queen Anne style. The tower-like oriel window is representative of the style.

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1-5 West Main Street

Evansville, Wisconsin. Buildings after rehabilitation. View the property record: AHI 85024

But by the end of the 20th century, all storefronts had been boarded up with tiny windows, replacing the old display windows.  And layers of stucco and aluminum siding obscured the buildings' original, distinctive architecture.

In spring 2002, owner Jeff Farnsworth hoped to revive this prominent downtown corner and began a rehabilitation of the buildings.

With woodworker Jim Cunningham, they removed stucco from the Greek Revival building at 1 West Main. They repaired and painted the original clapboard siding. The modern windows were replaced with six-over-six-light windows that matched the original configuration found on examples stored in the building.

When they removed the aluminum from 5 West Main, they were surprised to discover an intact brick wall and ornate bracketed cornice. The oriel window, however, had fared less well. The decorative recessed panels and garland ornaments were missing. Cunningham recreated them based on historic photos.

The most noticeable change to passersby was the storefronts. Gone was the barn board, replaced with large glazed display windows topped by transoms. Cunningham based the storefront designs on historic photos, and he clearly had an eye for historic detail.

Uncovering the history of a building may only require removing a layer or two to reveal what’s underneath. But more often than not, as Farnsworth found, it requires a little research and reconstruction as well. His efforts have indeed enhanced this downtown corner.

Read more about the history of Evansville's J. Winston & Sons Store Building and Dr. Charles Smith Building in the property records on our website.