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Property Location
Property Features
Portico was added c. 1939. Langlois was a ship chandler and merchant.
South Side Historic District Walking Tour Guide: "James and Margaret Langlois' house may have been only the central section of the present one. Mr. Langlois was a ship chandler whose shop was the forerunner of the Langlois Company, a paint store that was located downtown. Randall and Mary Smith bought the house in 1866 and improved it considerably, probably adding the wings. Mr.Smith had interests in Racine's first railroad, a local brickyard, and a downtown drugstore before his death in 1890. The Smith family lived here until 1920. A. DeVere and Florence Harnett bought what was then a run-down rooming house at an auction sale in 1939. They renovated it and remodeled it from its original Italianate Style to its present almost Georgian appearance and lived here into the 1980s."
"In 1939 a boardinghouse at 1610 College Avenue was publicly auctioned. DeVere Harnett became the astonished owner when he learned that a bid he had placed to raise the building's value had been accepted.
The Harnetts had hoped the home would become something besides a boardinghouse, and they spent nearly two years seeing to that. The structure's almost perfect restoration began with the removal of clotheslines from the parlor, plus 37 bushels of accumulated ashes. Once refurbished, each room was filled with period pieces and memorabilia collected by the Harnetts.
The house was possibly built by Randall Smith, a railroad owner, in the early 1860's. It combines basic symmetry of Federal style architecture with Italianate details such as heavy cornices set with ornate brackets. The elliptical fanlight over the door borrows again from the Federal style as does the doorway's flat entablature, pilasters, and columns." Renewing Our Roots: A Guide To Racine, Wisconsin, Central City, Southside, Preservation-Racine, 1977.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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