| 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.
Historical Background
This house was constructed in the late 1920s for Dana and Marie Corbin from Chicago. It was sold to Jules Beach and now belong to his heirs, Ellen Brush and John Beach.
Historical Significance
As with the other summer residences on Cottage Row, this property represents the pattern of living of wealthy urban midwesterners seeking to escape the heat of the cities. Mothers and children would spend the entire summer in Fish Creek, while the fathers would visit as their business schedules would allow. In some cases, several generations and family branches would share the same house.
Architectural Description
This summer residence is unusual on Cottage Row because of its style and setting. It is a formal interpretation of the Elizabethan Revival, in contrast to many of the homes which are rustic and nearly utilitarian in feel. The house has some stylistic elements of the earlier Crunden Elizabethan Revival house at 9353 Cottage Row [35/8], but is more rigid in execution. The walls are primarily stone veneer, with some areas of wood faux half-timbering over stucco. Particularly noticeable in comparison to 9353 and all of the other homes is the reduced size and limited quantity of windows. They are primarily multi-pane casement windows. Also significant for its change in tradition from many of the Cottage Row houses is the presence of two garage doors leading into the incorporated garage. Many of the other houses on cottage Row, even those built only a few years before this one, have detached garages - even if the garages were constructed contemporaneously with the house. The setting of the house is also unusual since it has been cleared of trees and is planted in lawn. Historically, Mrs. Crunden had done that at 9353, but it is no longer as pronounced there as at this property.
This house is similar in feel to the Vits Residence of 1926 at 4090 Highway 42 [40/04].
2025, according to a caretaker for the property: Designed by by notable Chicago architect, Edwin Hill Clark, the home was built by Dana and Marie Corbin of Chicago. The house was designed with servants quarters (2 bedrooms and a separate bath in the wing above the attached garage) a separate patio and entrance to the kitchen/butlers pantry for staff, an incinerator in the basement for waste (which had a chute down to the basement located in the kitchen, and a stone staircase that went down along the foundation of the kitchen with an ash cleanout door). It also has an exterior stone stairway to the basement for the caretaker and staff to use.
The landscaping was designed by notable landscape architect Jens Jensen.
The property across cottage row on the bluff side (all the way up to Gibraltar bluff road) was originally part of the same estate. There are currently two cottages on the upper part of this parcel. The older of the two was the original caretakers cottage, the second was built at a later date (late 40’s/early 50’s). There was a large vegetable garden, grapevines and fruit trees on the upper bluff property that provided fresh produce for both of the properties. There is a timber and stone staircase built into the bluff for the caretaker to access the cottages from the cottage row parcel.
The house was sold in the 1950’s to the Beach Family and has remained in their family (Beach/Brush family) for 3 generations.
The upper bluff cottage parcel was sold sometime in the 90’s.
The main house on cottage row was sold in 2024 to the same owner that had purchased the bluff cottages, so the two properties are adjoined once more.
Another notable tidbit, there is an original timber frame screen gazebo with flagstone floor on the south west corner of the property that overlooks the bay/bluff as well as a stone “pump house” on the northwest corner of the property that houses a pressure tank and its own electrical with a removable pipe and pump that feeds an original underground irrigation system that services the lower lawn (that overlooks the bay).
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| Bibliographic References: | A. Archibald Douglass Cottage Row Building List.
B. Betsy Guenzel, Fish Creek, The Summertime, privately printed, 1991.
C. Betsy Guenzel, September 2, 1992 interview with Rebecca Sample Bernstein, White Gull Inn, Fish Creek. |
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