| 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.
METAL SHINGLED ROOF W/ORNATE IRON CRESTING. DIAGONAL CNR TOWER W/CNR TURRETS AND ROUND ARCH ENTRANCE. BRICK CORBELLED CORNICE AND LINTEL COURSE. CNR TOWER W/1/2 ROUND WINDOW W/ROUGH CUT STONE SILL. 1 OF THE OLDEST & BEST PRESERVED OF STATE'S 19TH C PENAL FACILITIES.
This imposing structure has stood for law and order in this Wisconsin outpost since 1889. Florence first developed as part of the iron-rich Menominee range extending from Michigan to Wisconsin. Prospector Hiram Fisher discovered these deposits and staked a claim in 1873 after he had heard that magnetic attractions had made it difficult for timber workers to get compass readings in the area. By 1880, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad had extended its lines to the Florence mine, Fisher laid out a townsite, and a mining boom followed. Nearly 5,000 people flocked to the area to work in the mine or the logging camps. Predictably, vice flourished: scores of saloons, dance halls, and brothels sprang up, and miners gambled openly on the streets.
More upstanding citizens campaigned to bring law and order to Florence, and the Florence County jail became this effort’s most enduring symbol. J. E. Clancy of Green Bay designed the Romanesque Revival building, which conveys the impression of a small castle. A pavilion roof clad with metal shingles and crowned by a decorative ridge crest covers the cream brick walls. At the front, a canted tower provides entry through a rounded arch. Its steeply pitched roof, ornate cresting, pronounced corbel table, and decorative bartizans lend it a fortified appearance, as do the smaller pyramidal-roofed towers at each of the rear corners. Bars on the double-hung windows hint at dark, dank cells inside, one for women prisoners and two for men.
Northeast of the jail stands the Florence County Courthouse, silently testifying to Hiram Fisher’s success in securing the designation of Florence County (initially part of Marinette and Oconto counties) in 1882. Clancy designed the Romanesque Revival courthouse, completed along with the jail in 1889. A gabled entry arch marks the main facade, but the pavilions on either side are far more interesting. The eastern pavilion seems even taller than it is, an effect created by a two-story window set in an arched surround and divided only by a shingled spandrel. Also noticeable here is the checkerboard pattern, of brick, in the pavilion’s gable end. The three-story western pavilion originally stood four stories tall and terminated in a conical belvedere. Remnants at the rear of the building show that conical bartizans at the corners of both of the pavilions once gave the building a more fortified look. |
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