Property Record
170 FOREST AVE (AKA 68 HARRISON PL)
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Hotel Calumet |
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| Other Name: | Calumet Apartments |
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| Reference Number: | 28244 |
| Location (Address): | 170 FOREST AVE (AKA 68 HARRISON PL) |
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| County: | Fond du Lac |
| City: | Fond du Lac |
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| Year Built: | 1911 |
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| Additions: | C. 1990 1922 |
| Survey Date: | 19912010 |
| Historic Use: | hotel/motel |
| Architectural Style: | Neoclassical/Beaux Arts |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Hotel Calumet |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/20/1992 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/22/1992 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| 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. This three-story former hotel (now an apartment building) is constructed of bricks. It has stone trim. Recently remodeled, its large show windows on the first floor have been opened up and filled in with single pane glass. Simple columns and classical moldings decorate the entrance. One entrance is decorated with an arch and flanked with arched fan-light multi-pane windows. The spartan hotel interior once consisted of small rooms, narrow hallways and only one decorative wooden staircase. The hotel has been remodeled into small apartments and all decorative features have been restored in the interior of the building. See NRHP nomination form for more information. This building was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for architecture because it is a good and intact example of a simple Classical Revival hotel building. It is also significant as one of only two intact large hotels left in Fond du Lac. It is also significant as a large railroad hotel, located right next door to the old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad depot. For further information, see the NRHP nomination form. This hotel was built in two phases, the first in the 1920s (the front part of the hotel) as the Forest Avenue Hotel. It was totally remodeled and enlarged in 1920-22 and renamed the Hotel Calumet, a hotel that was trying to rival the big downtown hotels for guests, but in reality, largely served the train station travelers. Around the mid-twentieth century, the hotel largely became a rooming house, attracted largely low-income transients in the 1960s up to the time of the recent renovation. It has been recently renovated by the Alexander Companies of Madison, Wisconsin into small, medium-income apartments. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Date of construction: Daily Commonwealth. (B) Fond du Lac City Directories. (C) Sanborn-Perris Maps - Fond du Lac. (D) Fond du Lac Tax Rolls. (E) Michael D. Lempinen and Les Ross, Intensive Survey Report, Fond du Lac: City of Fond du Lac and Sundberg, Carlson and Associates, Inc., 1989. www.fdlpha.org |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |