Property Record
108 N LAKE ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Klaus Hotel |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 230624 |
| Location (Address): | 108 N LAKE ST |
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| County: | Oconto |
| City: | Gillett |
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| Year Built: | 1890 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2015 |
| Historic Use: | lodging-hotel |
| Architectural Style: | Commercial Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | 2015 The Klaus Hotel, constructed c.1890, is a two-story L-plan vernacular hotel with a stone foundation, brick walls, and a flat roof surrounded by a brick parapet with a dentilled brick cornice. The brick corbels and coping visible in a historic photograph of the hotel have been removed and replaced with plain metal coping . The building occupies a corner lot and the north facade fronts onto Railroad Street, while the west facade fronts onto Lake Street. Two entrances are located at the center and northwest corner of the north facade, and consist of modern metal doors accessed via wooden steps, which replaced the full-width porch shown in the historic photograph. Brick pilasters divide the west facade, separating the north elevation of the hotel from two commercial storefronts fronting Lake Street. The central storefront has been infilled and now consists of vertically-divided five-light fixed sash flanking a central doorway covered with plywood. The southernmost storefront now functions as a bar and although it retains its recessed entrance, the windows have been downsized with paired replacement fixed sash and replacement siding beneath a small pent awning. An exterior star is attached on the south (side) elevation, and a brick chimney is located at the rear of the building at the junction of the two blocks. Lower story windows throughout contain three-over-one double-hung units in downsized openings with flat sills and headers, while the upper story retains brick segmental arch headers. A local history describes Gillett’s first hotel (nonextant) as an “imposing two-story frame structure” located on the northwest corner of Main and Lake Streets, which was presumably razed when the Citizens State Bank of Gillett constructed a building at that location in 1904. Philip Klaus and his family relocated from Sturgeon Bay to Gillett between 1905 and 1910; the 1910 Federal Census lists him as a hotel keeper in Gillett, where he and his wife Julia employed three servants and a bartender. The Klaus Hotel appears on a 1912 plat, although it was likely constructed earlier; the historic photograph shows lettering painted on the north facade indicating that the property was under “new management,” and it is likely that Klaus purchased an existing hotel in the mid-1900s. By 1921 the property was known as the Gillett Hotel and was managed by George Mulby. The lower-story saloon now functions as a bar, and the upper floors appear to be apartments. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Marie Darrow, History of Gillett, 1856-1976 (Gillett, Wis.: Gillett Public Library, 1976), 12, 48. Darrow, 12. State of Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Census, 1905, Roll CSUSAWI1905_8, microfilm available at Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin. United States Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Gillett, Oconto, Wisconsin; Roll: T624_1729; Page: 16B; Enumeration District:0099; FHL microfilm: 1375742. Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory (Detroit: R.L. Polk & Co, 1921), 331. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |