Property Record
1712 SUMMIT AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | W.F. Sloan House |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 106693 |
| Location (Address): | 1712 SUMMIT AVE |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | Madison |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1927 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1998 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | English Revival Styles |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | Law, Law & Potter |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | University Heights Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 12/17/1982 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | Sloan, a consulting engineer with offices in Madison and Chicago, lived here from 1927-1931. Charles H. Johnson (1882-1940) lived here from 1931-1940. Was executive vice-president of the Gisholt Machine Co. from 1918-1940. In 1941, Sinclair Lewis rented this house during his one year of teaching at the University of Wisconsin. Nobel Prize winning author of "Babbit", "Main Street", etc. "Designed in a traditional style that owes much to English architecture, the Sloan House has been preliminary attributed to the architectural firm of Law, Law and Potter. James Law, the principal of the firm and a long-time mayor of the city, designed the Edward Birge House, 2011 Van Hise, and other dwellings in the city before going into partnership with his brother Edward and later with Ellis Potter. What is perhaps most interesting about the dwellings is its grandiosity. It was built so that all of the Madison lakes could be seen from its windows. In 1940, long after the Sloans had sold the house. It was rented briefly to Sinclair Lewis who described the dwelling in a letter to a friend: "Already today I have found a house -- nearly as good as our Beverly Hills castle minus patio and pool and just as large at one-third the rent. It's on a curving hillside road, very near the sprawling giant beehive of the University..." Lewis, who was teaching a course in creative writing, soon tired of the novelty of academic life and decamped for New York. Sloan was a consulting engineer who maintained a business in Madison and Chicago. His wife was a semi-invalid and it was for her that the house's elevator was installed." Madison Landmarks Commission, University Heights: A Walk Through A Turn of the Century Suburb, n.d. |
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| Bibliographic References: | City directories. Tax records. Building permit. Wisconsin State Journal 4/24/1940. Wisconsin State Journal: 1/1/1928, p. 1. Madison Landmarks Commission and the Regent Neighborhood Association, The University Heights Historic District: A Walking Tour, 1987. Madison Landmarks Commission, University Heights: A Walk Through A Turn of the Century Suburb, n.d. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |