| Additional Information: | This building was originally built as the Thayer and Co. Real Estate and Savings building sometime in 1877. M.A. Thayer & Co. Savings Bank was the second bank to establish itself in Sparta. M.A. Thayer and R.S. Kingman began this private bank in 1868 which completed with the Sparta Bank - the only other bank in Sparta. The M.A. Thayer Bank & Co. started on the northeast corner of North Water Street and East Main Street (not extant). However, the original brick building at the corner of Water and East main Streets was built on a sawdust pile and soon settled, cracking a wall from the basement to the first floor. In 1877, M.A. Thayer Bank & Co. moved to this new building on the northeast corner of West Oak and South Water streets. The Thayer Bank & Co. was in operation at 124 South Water from 1877 to 1893. By 1894, M.A. Thayer Bank & Co. had fallen into difficult times and was taken over and reorganized as the Monroe County Bank.
The Monroe County Bank (Sparta's third banking business) began business on October 26, 1894 on the northeast corner of West Oak and South Water streets. George D. Dunn was its first president and W.G. Williams was the vice-president and the bank was capitalized at $25,000. The first board of directors had many community leaders, including George D. Dunn, A. Thorbus, W.G. Williams, C.M. Masters, L.D. Merrill and W.T. Sarles. In 1913, the bank's capital stock was increased to $50,000. George Dunn was the first president of the Monroe County Bank and held that position until 1920, when he died. George Dunn was succeeded by William R. Crosby. Since then, the bank has had several presidents. The Monroe County Bank remained at the corner of Oak and Water Streets until 1969, when it merged with another bank and moved elsewhere.
From 1877 to the present there have been a variety of retail services and offices in this building as well.
The Thayer and Co. Bank Building gains local significance under Criterion A in association with the Banking topic of Sparta's Commerce Theme. The building's period of historical significance ranges from its erection and initial business occupation until 1969, when the last banking firm occupied the building.
In 1887, W.P. Palmer associated himself with a Mr. Gross, starting the Palmer and Gross Drugstore. It was located at 124 South Water Street in the Thayer Building in a store 20 x 70 feet in dimension. By 1897, the business had become the Gross & Schaller Drugstore. In 1899, besides carrying a normal line of stock, they also manufactured a line of patent medicines and flavoring extracts, which was distributed throughout Monroe and surrounding counties by wagon. On the sides of their wagons, they advertised their malt cough cure and quaker tea for stomach, kidney, and liver complaints. The lineage of Schaller's drugstores at this address lasted from 1916 until probably the 1930's.
The Thayer Building (north store) gains local historical significance under Criteria A in association with the Patent Medicine and Drug Industry topic under Sparta's Commerce Theme. Like many small communities in America, the drugstore was an important part of mainstream life in Sparta. The Thayer Building contained many of these establishments. The building's period of historical significance ranges from 1877 and its erection to circa 1930's. However, the Thayer Building does not meet the NRHP criteria because of a lack of architectural integrity.
Located on the northwest corner of Water Street and Oak Street, this two-story, large brick commercial building features a metal front with band of small metal windows with vertically divided sashes on the upper story of the Water Street facade and the Oak Street facade. A contemporary storefront with a display window on the cut away bay, a centrally located door to the second floor stairway, and an entrance to the first floor commercial space on the north end further characterizes this building. A metal canopy is suspended the full length of the storefront as well as along the south facade [Oak Street].
This early historic building, originally an elaborate Italianate styled comemrcial brick block characterized by wide bracket cornices, highly decorative iron window heads [similar to those on the Harvey building at 122 South Water Street MO23/34], arched iron storefronts and an entrance into the pediment topped cut-away corner bay, which was ornamented by a Classical frontispiece, has been competely altered by the addition of exterior metal siding. In the process, all the windows and window decoration and the cornices were removed. In the process, all the windows and window decoration and the cornices were removed. In addition, the two historic storefronts on Water Street and the storefront originally on Oak have been replaced. An addition, built in the 1960s as the "drive-in" facility for the bank, is located at the rear of the building. The Thayer Bank was first altered in 1897 after the building was purchased by the Monroe county Bank, formerly located in the I.O.O.F. building across the street. The entrance on the cut-away corner bay was changed by local contractors Bowen and Knauss from the original with a pediment resting on consoles to a projecting entrance with a balustraded deck and cornice featuring massive oak doors. At this time, the interior was also remodeled including the installation of stamped metal ceilings and new furniture. The north half of the building was remodeled and a new storefront added by the Gross and Schaller Drugstore at the time. The building was altered extensively by the application of stucco to the exterior of the south half of the building before the present siding was added while it was the site of the Monroe County Bank. The Monroe County Bank also added the rear addition in 1960. The present siding was added, covering the entire original business block, in 1989.
Constructed in 1877, this comemrcial block was b uilt for the Thayer and Company Savings Bank that had been previsouly located since 1869 at the northeast corner of Water Main Street. The new Thayer Block originally housed the bank in the east end of the store, a drug store in its north store, Drs. beebe and Gage medical offices at the rear of the south store, and a social hall in the second floor. The building was legally divided after the Thayer Bank failed in the early 1890s. In 1896, the north store was sold to its occupants, the Gross and Schaller Drug Store and the south half was sold to the Monroe County Bank. The south commercial space continued to house the Monroe County Bank until the building was used as a clothing store by its present owners.
The Thayer and Co. bank building does not meet the criteria of the NRHP for architectural significance because of a lack of integrity. Also, because its historic character has been eliminated by the application of siding to the facade, it does not contribute to the Water Street Commercial Historic District. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Monroe County History Room, Rt. 2, Sparta, WI, photograph collection, photograph of Thayer Bank and Monroe County Bank.
(B) Sparta Herald, June 1, 1869; Dec. 28, 1869; Dec. 4, 1877; photograph April 4, 1890; Sept. 5, 1893; May 12, 1896; Oct. 26, 1897; Jan. 18, 1898.
(C) City of Sparta, WI, City Hall, Community Development Office, Building Permit File.
(D) Jim Hanson (owner), interview Jan. 18, 1898.
(E) Sanborn Insurance Maps 1884, 1889, 1894, 1900, 1911, 1922, 1931.
(F) Annual Directory of Sparta, Wisconsin. Vol. 1. Chicago: Interstate Directory Co., 1897.
(G) Sparta City Directory, 1903-1904. Sparta: R.C. Glover, Publisher, 1904.
(H) City Directory of the City of Sparta, Wisconsin. Sparta: compiled and published by E.B. Bell, 1916.
(I) Monroe County Democrat, "Sparta-Up-To-Date" June 30, 1899: 26, 41
(J) Monroe County Republican Oct. 12, 1877.
(K) Ellsworth, C.S., Views in and Around Sparta, Giving a Brief History of the City and Setting Forth its Advantages for Manufacturing and as a Place of Residence, Together with some Accounts of its Celebrated Magnetic Mineral Water, Portage, Wisconsin: Register Printing Company, 1888.
(L) Barney, Tyler Davis, "A History of the Growth of Sparta, Wisconsin, 1850-1890." B.A. Thesis. University of Wisconsin, 1922, pp. 35, 41.
(M) Richards, Randolph A., History of Monroe County, Wisconsin: Past and Present, Including an Account of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County. Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co., 1912, pp. 301-304.
(N) Gregory, John G. West Central Wisconsin: A History. Vol. 3, Indianapolis: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1933, pp. 35-36 and 669-670.
(O) Sparta Centennial Celebration Committee, Sparta Incorporation City Centennial: 1883-1983 (1983), unpublished pamphlet, p. 35.
(P) Koehler, Lyle P., From Frontier Settlement to Self-Conscious American Community: A History of One Rural Village (Sparta, Wisconsin) in the Nineteenth Century. Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, Inc., 1977, p. 42. |
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