Property Record
N366 COUNTY ROAD EM (E SIDE OF COUNTY HIGHWAY EM .35 MI S OF HIGHWAY R)
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | KLIESE HOUSEBARN |
|---|---|
| Other Name: | LANGHOLFF HOUSE AND BARN |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 14885 |
| Location (Address): | N366 COUNTY ROAD EM (E SIDE OF COUNTY HIGHWAY EM .35 MI S OF HIGHWAY R) |
|---|---|
| County: | Dodge |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Emmet |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 9 |
| Range: | 15 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 36 |
| Quarter Section: | NW |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: | SE |
| Year Built: | 1850 |
|---|---|
| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | barn |
| Architectural Style: | Astylistic Utilitarian Building |
| Structural System: | Half Timber |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Kliese Housebarn |
|---|---|
| National Register Listing Date: | 4/2/2008 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 10/19/2007 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| 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. SEE SURVEY FILE. HABS WI-149. POSSIBLY BUILT BY FRIEDRICH KLIESE. Although rare in America, housebarns--structures sheltering people and livestock under the same roof--were common in Europe, at least since medieval times. In the oldest housebarns, people and animals commingled, but by the nineteenth century an interior wall usually divided the building into separate spaces with separate entrances. Wisconsin had at least seven housebarns, mostly in Dodge and Manitowoc counties, where many German immigrants settled. The Kliese Housebarn, outside Watertown, is the state’s best known. Two stories tall, it shows off the German building technique of fachwerk: heavy timber framing, with nogging of wooden staves and clay, bound with straw. Over time, the owners replaced the original nogging with cream brick on the barn's eastern end (which housed people) and covered it with vertical boards on the western end (which housed cattle and hay). Between the two living spaces was a large brick barrel-vaulted schwarze Küche (“black kitchen”), where the women cured meat and baked bread. Friedrich and Frederika Kliese, immigrants from Prussia (northeastern Germany), built the housebarn probably between 1846 and 1851 and lived there with their six children and seven cattle. They soon sold it to another family of German immigrants. The Langholff name, by which the building is commonly known, comes from a more recent owner. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |