| 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.
1984: Romanesque Revival church has complex massing revolving around the cross gable roof, corner square tower, and stair tower, and some medieval details which include rose windows and a gable.
2017-2018 Recommendation Write-Up: Dominated by a three(+)-story, square tower at its northeast corner, this Romanesque Revival-style church is clad with Menomonie brick and rises from a heavily rusticated Lake Superior Brownstone foundation. A square two-story tower is located at the building’s southeast corner, while a pair of two-story, rounded towers--one topped with a domed cap, the other with a conical cap--rise along its north elevation. Entrances are located at the base of each square tower, while a third entrance is situated along the rectangular hipped block to the west. Windows throughout the building include two, large, stained-glass rose windows, as well as variously sized rectangular openings that are irregularly arranged. A modern addition extends from the south side of the structure.
Designed by architect Warren H. Hayes, the First Congregational Church was completed in 1892. The congregation was organized in 1861 and originally known as the First Congregational Church and Society of Menomonie. Early meetings were held in Newman Hall (later known as the land office of Knapp, Stout & Co.) until shared use of an old schoolhouse was made available to both them and the Methodist congregation. A parsonage was built in 1862 and, five years later, a church edifice which was, again, shared with the Methodists. In 1870, a church was erected for the Congregationalists only and, ten years later, that structure was moved to the subject location at 5th Street and Wilson Avenue. In 1882, a new parsonage was built. With a growing membership, construction of a new church began in 1890 and was completed in 1892, with dedication services held on 1 June 1892. Much of the cost of the church’s construction came from the Knapp and Wilson families. Between 1990 and 1992, the former rectory was removed from the property and a fellowship hall addition was completed. In 2002, a three-phase restoration project began, phase two of which included the re-leading of the church’s forty stained glass windows. The church continues to serve the Menomonie-area First Congregational-UCC membership.
Architect Warren Howard Hayes was born in New York in 1849 and graduated from Cornell University in 1871. Ten years later he settled in Minneapolis, where he specialized in church design. Indeed, the City of Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission identifies him as “indisputably the city’s leading ecclesiastical architect in the latter half of the 19th century.” He was a proponent of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture, which employed round arches and rusticated stone. In Wisconsin, Hayes also designed the First Presbyterian Church in Ashland (1897). Hayes died in 1899. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Citations for the Recommendation Write-Up below: Dr. D.H. Decker, “The First Congregational Church,” Menomonie (WI) Times, 2 March 1905, Available online at www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Newspaper/BA8711, Accessed April 2018; Curtiss-Wedge and Jones, eds., History of Dunn County, Wisconsin, 147-149; “Intensive Survey Report: Architectural and Historical Survey Project, Menomonie, Wis.,” Prepared by Roxanne Owens and Dr. Claudia Smith (March 1987), 103; Lynch and Russell, eds., Where the Wild Rice Grows, 211-212; Frank and Barbara Burdick, “First Congregational Church-UCC Undergoes Many Changes,” Article available online at https://chippewa.com/first-congregational-church-ucc-undergoes-many-changes/article_20a9acdd-563f-5695-95f5-31a3b20c7f31.html, Accessed July 2018.
Henry F. Withey and Elsie R. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 274; Quoted material from the city of Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission, Available online at www.minneapolismn.gov/hpc/landmarks/hpc_landmarks_warren_howard_hayes, Accessed August 2018. |
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