| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. CENTURY FARM. PRE-DATES 1897 WHEN THE FELDMAN FAMILY FROM CHICAGO SETTLED THE FARM. HOUSE AND ONE BARN WERE LOCATED HERE AT THAT TIME. THE FELDMANs ADDED ALL OTHER OUTBUILDINGS, INCLUDING THE BIG BARN IN 1907. ADDITIONALLY, THE HOUSE WAS REMODELED IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY. THREE GENERATIONS HAVE FARMED HERE. OTHER OUTBUILDINGS INCLUDE: 10/4, 10/5, 10/6, 10/7, 10/9, 10/10, 10/11, 10/12, 10/13.
2015- "The Feldman Farmstead is located on the west side of CTH Z in the Town of Quincy, Adams County, among other farms. The Feldman farmhouse is situated approximately 82 feet from the edge of the pavement of CTH Z. The farmstead is composed of 11 buildings and one object, constituting a farmhouse, an ice house/wood shed, two privies, a garage, a small animal barn/stable, a machine shed, two corn cribs, a brooder house, and a large dairy barn/milk house and windmill. The Feldman family purchased the property in 1897, at which time two of the existing buildings (the farmhouse and the small barn) were present on the property. The Feldman family built the rest of the now-extant buildings. One building, a chicken house, was demolished some time ago by the present occupant, Harold Feldman. Most of the farm buildings are aligned in an east-west row leading between the one-car garage to the north of the house and the large dairy barn/milk house at the back of the farmyard.
Farmhouse
The core of the Feldman farmhouse dates to ca. 1870. It is a simple front-gabled one and one-half-story house, which faces east. On the north side of the house is a cat-slide shed-roofed addition, which probably dates to the early twentieth century. The windows on these two sections of the house are tall two-over-two double-hung units. A ca. 1960 Chicago-style picture window lights the south side of the house. According to Harold Feldman, the current owner, the foundation of this part of the house was added by Edward Feldman, Sr., to replace an earlier foundation. The large red sandstone blocks are similar to those on the dairy barn/milk house; therefore, it is possible that the new foundation was added around the same time as the barn was built.
Across the front of the main block is a shallowly pitched hipped-roof addition, which includes an enclosed porch on the south end and a small bedroom addition on the north. Harold Feldman reported that the addition was erected ca. 1960. Windows on this section of the house are Craftsman style three-over-one units.
At the rear of the house is a slightly lower gable-roofed addition where the kitchen is located. Harold Feldman recalled that this wing and its rougher mixed stone foundation were added to the main block ca. 1900. The north side of the kitchen wing features an enclosed porch, which has a band of four single-pane double-hung windows and an entrance door. Wooden steps lead to the door, which is sheltered by a small, shallowly pitched gabled hood. The porch also has two double-hung windows to the west. On the south side of the house, an addition (ca. 1960, per Harold Feldman), incorporates an old woodshed as interior space encloses a stairway to the basement.
All parts of the house are sided in asphalt shingles and all roofs are covered with three-tab asphalt shingles. An old red brick chimney rises from the crest of the roof, but, after a fire in this chimney ca. 1960, it was abandoned and replaced by two concrete block chimneys, one on the south side of the house and one on the west side of the kitchen wing.
Ice House/Wood Shed
Directly behind the house to the west is a long narrow shed (ca. 1900) topped by an asphalt-singled gable roof. The siding on the shed is horizontal drop siding. According to Harold Feldman, the poured concrete foundation was added ca. 1930. On the east side of the shed is a passage door that a leads to the wood shed. On the west, two doors, one on top of the other, provide access to the ice house. Doors are constructed of vertical boards. After the farmstead was electrified ca. 1939, the family bought a refrigerator and the ice house was converted to additional wood storage. The ice house/wood shed shows hints of its early paint scheme, white with red trim.
Privies
Two privies are situated in the rear yard of the house, a short distance to the west. One was moved to the site from the McBride schoolyard after the school was closed ca. 1941, and a small gable-roofed privy (ca. 1900) is located in an area of overgrowth behind it. Both privies have gabled roofs. The rear privy is covered in vertical boards, while the McBride School privy has horizontal drop siding and a wood shingle roof.
Garage
To the north of the farmhouse is a small one-car, gable-roofed garage built in 1931 to house Edward Feldman Jr.'s 1930 Model A Ford. Unlike the other farm buildings on the property, which, except for the ice house/wood shed, were painted red, the garage was painted yellow. The garage has horizontal drop siding and asphalt shingles on the roof. The two swing-out garage doors are constructed from vertical boards.
Animal Barn/Stable
Behind the garage is a barn (ca. 1870) that was extant when the Feldmans purchased the property in 1897. The barn is one and one-half stories with a side-gabled roof. The siding is horizontal drop siding in fair condition and the roof is corrugated metal. Fenestration is limited to a few small six-light barn windows and two passage doors constructed of vertical board. A shed roof added in recent decades covers a carport on the west.
Machine Shed
Continuing westerly, an open area behind the old barn marks the location of the former chicken house. Behind that is a large machine shed (built ca. 1905) with a side-gabled roof,. The roof is covered in corrugated metal and the siding is vertical boards. Around 1940, the current owner built a hip-roofed addition to the east, which is covered in asphalt shingles and is clad in asphalt sheet siding painted red. Large vertical board sliding doors pierce the south side of the shed.
Corn Cribs
Two corn cribs are situated to the west of the machine shed. One, built in the early twentieth century, is a front-gabled structure with long sloping sides sheltering walls that are canted outward to provide circulation and water drainage. The center section is accessed by two large sliding doors of vertical boards, and each side section has a passage door leading into the crib. The central section is clad in horizontal drop siding; the corn cribs on each side have narrow gaps between their vertical boards. Directly west of this corn crib stands a more recently constructed, larger corn crib with a shed roof and a long, narrow footprint. This building is of timber frame construction covered with vertical boards on the sides and horizontal boards on the front. Spaces between the posts are filled with galvanized wire fencing. The crib has a shed roof and small metal roof vents. This corn crib was built by Harold Feldman ca. 1940.
Brooder House
East of the wide grassed lane is an overgrown area that appears to have been used for vegetable gardens and chicken yards. One structure, in poor condition, remains in the area and was used by Mr. Feldman's mother, Sarah, as a brooder house. There are remnants of two collapsed sheds in the area that had been used for poultry. The brooder house (ca. 1905) is clad with vertical board siding and topped with a half-gambrel roof. A row of windows faces south.
Dairy Barn/Milk House and Windmill
At the end of the grass lane, a large dairy barn/milk house, in excellent condition, is set back on a rise at the end of the row of farm buildings. Harold Feldman reported that it was built in 1906 for the Feldmans. The first-floor foundation is composed of large red sandstone blocks with rusticated faces. On the west and south faces of the barn, these are laid in careful courses with medium sized mortar joints. The east and north faces have more roughly laid up stonework. Some mortar joints have been repainted. Two vertical board access doors into the basement level and a small, asymmetrically placed barn window above are located on the east side of the barn. The structure is clad in vertical board barn siding and the side-gabled roof is covered with asphalt shingles. At the southeast corner of the barn is a small gable-roofed concrete block milk house added to the barn ca. 1960-1970. The barn is banked into the hillside in the typical German dairy barn configuration, and large sliding vertical board doors on the west side of the barn lead to the large hay loft. The structure, constructed of thick barn posts and beams and debarked split log rafters, is in excellent condition. The cupola on the barn was hand crafted by the carpenters who built the barn and it remains intact. The base of the cupola is covered in red-painted metal. The roof is topped with a pyramidal roof, with four gables. Each side of the cupola has two Gothic arched vents. In the tympanum area above the arches of each side is a carved five-pointed star. The cupola is crowned with a lightning rod with decorative metal scrolls and a milk glass ball. Lightning rods line the roof ridge of the barn. In a grove of trees in front of the barn, the main structure of a tall metal windmill remains. The blades, however, are gone."
-"Feldman Farmstead". WisDOT 6355-00-04, Prepared by CCRG (Rachel Bankowitz) and Katherin H. Rankin, Historic Preservation Cons.
2021- Resurveyed. Farmhouse now has the appearance of a modern log house and has an integrated garage addition. Six of the property's historic agricultural outbuildings (the small animal barn/stable, brooder house, both privies, ice house/wood shed, and windmill) have been demolished. |
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