| Additional Information: | This large Queen Anne style building rises two stories to the prominent eave line. The attic level projects slightly and is covered by a steep gable roof. The facade is marked by a central pavilion in the form of a two story bay which terminates in a wall dormer, with a parapet roof line. Adjoining the northwest corner of the building is a three story tower. Although the design of this residence incorporates a number of interesting shapes, the re-siding with aluminum siding has resulted in a significant loss of integrity.
2014: Sheathed with vinyl (lower) and asbestos upper. Was clapboard.
2024: John Joseph Clarke, born in Ireland to John and Mary Jane Clarke in 1838, immigrated to the United States, and resided in Waukesha by 1870, where he worked as a merchant and established a dry goods and millinery store by the following year in a non-extant building at 556 Main Street, now 327 W. Main Street. John married Margaret E. Harter, born in New York City in 1848 to German immigrant John Harter and Irish immigrant Margarit Harter, in 1870. The couple had five daughters and resided around the corner from the store in a non-extant house at 616 South Street, later the address changed to 341 South Street, on the southeast corner of South Street and Grand Avenue. In 1886, Clarke had his non-extant, one-story, wood-framed store building temporarily moved across the street to continue operating while a new two-story masonry building was constructed for his business on the site of the former, at what is now 327 W. Main St. The store’s success allowed the Clarkes to construct the large home designed by the Milwaukee architecture firm of Crane and Barkhausen at 615 East Avenue on the southeast corner of Arcadian Avenue in 1896, replacing an earlier 1-1/2 story, L-shaped, wood-framed house that previously stood on the site. He retired and closed the store also around 1896. John died in 1900, and Margaret in 1904. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Sanborn Perris Maps, 1895, 1901.
- “A Fine Improvement.” Waukesha Freeman, Mar. 25, 1886. p. 1.
- “Crane and Barkhausen.” Milwaukee A Half Century’s Progress, 1846-1896. Consolidated Illustrating Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 1896. p. 177. Google Books website. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Milwaukee_a_Half_Century_s_Progress_1846/hJQUAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
- Sanborn maps 1884, 1890, 1895, 1901
- Waukesha city directories, 1890-1909.
- Waukesha Freeman, Sep. 7, 1871. p. 5.
- Waukesha Freeman, Mar. 11, 1886. p. 1.
- Waukesha Freeman, Mar. 25, 1886. p. 1.
- Waukesha Freeman, Dec. 13, 1888. p. 1.
- Waukesha Freeman, Dec. 5, 1895. p. 8.
- Waukesha Freeman, Mar. 11, 1896. p. 1.
- Waukesha Freeman, Mar. 19, 1896. p. 1.
- Wisconsin, U.S., Death Index, 1808-1907. Ancestry.com website.
- Wisconsin, U.S., Marriage Records, 1820-2004. Ancestry.com website.
- Wisconsin, U.S., State Censuses, 1855-1905. Ancestry.com website.
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