| Additional Information: | This farm is comprised of a ca. 1880 brick farmhouse; a small, gabled frame barn (ca. 1900); a Quonset barn (ca. 1950s) and a vinyl-sheathed, hipped-roof garage (modern). Regarding the house (AHI#220793), it is gabled ell in form, rises from a stone foundation and is constructed of brick. A circa-1950s replacement porch covers a portion of the ell and includes metal supports and railing. Aside from the circa-1950s picture window, the house features regularly placed, segmentally arched window openings that have since been infilled with rectangular fenestration. A frame, one-and-one-half-story, gabled wing extends from the rear from which another one-story wing extends—both wings appear to be sheathed with vinyl. The board-and-batten-sided, front-gabled barn (AHI#220795) is located at the rear of the property and is somewhat obscured from view from the roadway. However, it appears to rest only on a footing and a large sliding door is evident along its southwesterly elevation.
Plats indicate that the property (then 80 acres) was in 1873 owned by the Shirger family. One year later, the farm was purchased by Andrew Portz, who was born in Bavaria in 1841. At the age of seventeen, he immigrated to the United States. After residing in the Town of Hartford for three years, he went to California for five (until circa 1867). In 1871, he married Julia Miller. Then, after serving as a clerk in his uncle’s store until 1874, he (the grandson-in-law of Mary Shirger) purchased the subject farm (soon thereafter known as Evergreen Farm), where he and his family remained until 1891-92 (Portz died in Waukesha in 1908). The house is believed to have been built by Portz, circa 1880. The farm was then purchased by Frank Rettler Sr. (b. 1859, Town of Hartford), who remained there with his family until moving into the City of Hartford in 1928. Thereafter, his son Edward first rented, then owned the farm until his death in 1969. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Date of construction from observation.
Ownership of Portz confirmed through Plat Book of Washington & Ozaukee Counties, Wisconsin (Minneapolis, MN: C.M. Foote, 1892) and Portz obituary, "Remains Laid at Rest Sunday," Hartford TImes, 26 May 1908.
“Architecture/History Survey: Reconstruct CTH N: Dodge Co. Line To Airport Dr. WHS project number 12-0688/WT.” |
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