| Additional Information: | 2017-2018 Survey Recommendation Write-Up: This two-story, brick-clad house is topped with a hipped roof with a modestly overhanging eave; three of the four elevations include a gabled roof dormer with decorative wooden shinglework that surrounds a central, double-hung window. Oriented to the east, the primary elevation features a one-story, open porch with a spindled railing that wraps around the house to the south, nearly to its western end. The porch floor is supported by brick piers above which rest wooden columns that support the porch roof. A pediment with wooden shinglework identifies the east entrance; the doorway itself is topped with a transom. Additional entrances to the home are located along the west and south elevations. Windows throughout the house are regularly spaced but not symmetrically arranged, with most featuring a double row of rowlock brick headers and plain stone sills. Also located on the property is a carriage house sheathed with shiplap siding and featuring a cupola along the roof’s ridge. This structure is not original to the property and was moved here by the current owner from 814 11th Street E.
This house was built circa 1905-06 for Harry & Jennie Sprink. Harry Sprink, the son of Norwegian immigrants, was born in Milwaukee in 1861. As of the 1880 census, he was living in Milwaukee with his widowed mother and siblings and was working as a peddler. He would later work as a cigarmaker and then engage in stock buying and the butcher business in Washington County, where he met his wife Jennie Zoch. They wed in 1884 and returned to Milwaukee, where Sprink worked with the city’s street car lines. After a few years of farming in Hartford, Wisconsin, the Sprinks moved to Damon Ridge, Dunn County, where Harry took up farming once again. The local Menomonie paper reported that in 1896 he obtained a saloon license and, three years later, he operated a dance hall in North Menomonie. Per the 1900 census, he was living on Tainter Street (in North Menomonie) and operating a saloon. At that time, the Sprink household consisted of Harry and Jennie, their seven children, as well as a live-in servant. In 1902, Sprink purchased 36 acres from Knapp, Stout & Company, upon which he built the subject house in circa 1905-06. In 1907, Sprink purchased the East Tramway Brickyard at Tramway (located six miles northwest of Menomonie) which had previously been owned and operated (since 1890) by Mrs. Sarah Kirkland (however, the yard itself was opened in 1884). The new brick-making concern was incorporated in February 1907 by P.N. Swenson, W.A. Drowley and Sprink as the Tramway Brick Company. In May 1910, Sprink was in a car accident that proved fatal for him; however, the rest of his passengers, including his wife, survived the crash. Circa 1912, the Sprink family heirs sold the Tramway brick manufacturing plant to the Excelsior Brick Company and the name was changed to the Menomonie Brick Company. The Sprink family remained in the home only until 1915, at which time it was sold to the Kraft Mercantile Company of Menomonie. Jennie Sprink died in 1919. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Citations for recommendation information provided below:
U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1880, 1900, 1910; Knapp, Stout & Company to Harry Sprink, Warranty Deed (s. 10 July 1902; r. 11 October 1902), 58/195, #80014; “Hurled to Death When Auto Turns Turtle in Air,” Eau Claire Daily Leader, 3 May 1910, 5/3-4; “Killed By Auto,” The Chippewa Herald, 4 May 1910, 3/3; “Harry Sprink Meets Death in the Overturning of his Auto,” Dunn County News, 5 May 1910, 1/1-2; Curtiss-Wedge and Jones, eds., History of Dunn County, Wisconsin, 109. Written sources differ on whether Sprink built a dance hall in North Menomonie or if he purchased it from Charles Johnson. Sprink’s obituary also notes that, at some point, he also purchased the Junction Hotel from Charles Johnson. Although the exact property is not confirmed, it is likely the structure located at 1501 Tainter Street, based on the 1900 census information that places him on Tainter Street; a review of deeds and tax rolls for that property may help to confirm or deny that assertion; Ernest Robertson Buckley, Ph.D., The Clays and Clay Industries of Wisconsin (Madison, WI: Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, 1901), 206-07; Jennie Sprink to the Kraft Mercantile Co., Warranty Deed (s. 18 March 1915; r. 23 March 1915), 61/460, #123759. |
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