Property Record
2601 Afton Rd.
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | A.O. SMITH CORP. DAIRY EQUIPMENT LABORATORY |
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| Reference Number: | 231685 |
| Location (Address): | 2601 Afton Rd. |
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| County: | Rock |
| City: | Beloit |
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| Year Built: | 1947 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 20152023 |
| Historic Use: | laboratory |
| Architectural Style: | Spanish/Mediterranean Styles |
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| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Constructed in 1947, this 1-story building is a Mediterranean Revival style laboratory and dairy barn that was operated by a branch of the A.O. Smith Corporation. It is irregular in plan with a concrete foundation, brick walls, and a flat roof with tile embellishments along the front façade. The building is comprised of two building masses connected via a narrow hyphen. The southern building mass features an exposed basement level with a row of four garage bays across its south elevation. The front elevation of the building faces west and is asymmetrical in composition with round-cornered projecting bays in both building masses. The front elevation of the southern mass contains a garage bay with a modern overhead door in its projecting center bay; this is flanked by large, square, glass-block windows. The front elevation of the northern building mass contains a number of large glass-block window openings and two pedestrian entrances (one in the south wall of the projecting bay and another in the west wall south of this). A concrete retaining wall with a metal handrail projects west from the foundation of the exposed basement level of the southern building mass. The A.O. Smith Corporation originated in Milwaukee in 1874 with the manufacture of metal components for bicycles, baby carriages, and, later, automobile frames. In the 1930s, the company developed a process of fusing glass to steel that led to the production of glass-lined brewery tanks and water heaters; the same technology was used in the production of the company’s well-known Harvestore silos. These twentieth-century innovations led the company to become one of Wisconsin’s most prominent industries with an international reach that extends to the present day. W.C. Heath, an executive with the A.O. Smith Corporation, acquired the property at 2601 Afton Road (including the Crist House, AHI 52752) in the early 1940s where he raised a herd of purebred Brown Swiss cattle. The A.O. Smith Corporation acquired the property in 1947, the year the dairy laboratory was constructed, and used the property to experiment with their Harvestore silos and other dairying equipment. |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |