| 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.
The John Walter Home was constructed in a residential stretch of N. Barstow Street, near Walter's Brewery. The exterior design of the home is dominated by an octagonal tower and veranda at the southwest corner, and a multitude of windows. Asphalt shingles cover the irregular roof of the two and one half story structure, whose clapboard walls were covered with asphalt siding in the early 1960's. The veranda is supported by turned wood columns which are spanned by balusters and alternating arches and pediments of turned spindles. Bracketed gables, featuring filled wood struts, break from the roof on the west and south sides, over-hanging two story bay windows below. Windows, largely grouped into bays or in the tower, are double-hung sash or large plates with stained glass overlights. Molded brick chimneys frame the ends of a tiled ridge on the roof.
The interior of the home is largely intact.
Also on the property is a square, 1930's-vintage stucco and brick garage (A). (1981 photo - 33/36).
The John Walter Home is an artful illustration of the decorative potential of wood in realizing the intricacies of the Queen Anne Style. The 1897 structure still bears the original grand veranda and ornamented gables with their abundance of turned spindles, columns, and struts. Broad, handsome surfaces of birds-eye maple and oak in the interior show an appreciation for quality materials and workmanship (A).
John Walter, owner of Walter's Brewery was born in Germany in 1853 and settled in Eau Claire in 1889. He purchased the Sommermeyer family brewery in the same year, and reopened it as the Walter Brewery in 1890. Still in operation today (318 Elm St., 4L/3), the business survived a fire and rebuilding in 1909. After her husband's death in 1932, Mrs. Walter lived in the house until 1942. Mr. and Mrs. William Hein are the current owners (A).
This Queen Anne house features a corner octagonal tower, a broad veranda with a variety of stick work, shingles, cornice and ornamental bargeboards. The interior is in excellent condition. The kitchen has been modernized. The house was built in 1897 by John Walter, the owner of the Walter Brewing Company. Walter was born in Germany in 1853 and came to Eau Claire in 1889 via Spencer, Wisc. He purchased the brewery from the Sommermeyer family in 1889 and opened it for business in 1890. In 1909 it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt at its present location of 318 Elm Street. In 1915 he incorporated at $600,000 with Al Loether and George Blum. Walter died in 1932.
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Headington purchased the house in 1977.
ORIGINAL COST OF THE HOUSE WAS $20,000. HOEPPNER-BARTLETT PREPARED ALL THE WOOD FOR THE HOME AND THE POSTS AND TRIM WERE MADE BY PHOENIX WOODWORK.
2016- "Fourteen-year-old Johannes Walther apprenticed with a brewer in his native Germany. He and his brothers immigrated to the United States in 1874 and within a few years established breweries across Wisconsin. His first brewery, in Spencer, burned in 1889. The following year, Walter purchased the Empire Brewery in Eau Claire, which he renamed the John Walter Brewing Company. As the business prospered, the Walter family moved from their modest home at 628 North Barstow to this expensive residence."
-"Eau Claire Landmarks: Designated Historic Properties in Eau Claire, Wisconsin", Eau Claire Landmarks Commission, P.O. Box 5148, 2016. |
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