Property Record
580 MORRIS ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | BERLIN LOCK [CORPS O |
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| Other Name: | (DNR) |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 48416 |
| Location (Address): | 580 MORRIS ST |
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| County: | Green Lake |
| City: | Berlin |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
| Range: | |
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| Year Built: | 1878 |
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| Additions: | 1904 |
| Survey Date: | 1990 |
| Historic Use: | lock |
| Architectural Style: | NA (unknown or not a building) |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Concrete |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
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| Additional Information: | The F in the photo codes is for Fox Canal Survey. The lock has been filled with earth to accomodate what is now a paved walkway. Small sections of the lock's concrete walls are visible above the water line. The original lock had a concrete foundation with stone masonry walls. Below the water line, small stone hammered to a rectangular shape was used; above it was a facing of cut stone laid in regular courses of not more than 14 inches. The chamber walls of the lock were 13 feet high, exclusive of coping, with a thickness at the bottom of 6.5 feet. At least some of the stone used in construction - including the wing and slope walls and the 19-inch coping stone - was quarried at Kaukauna, where the lock's tee gates were frames. The lock was 170.6 feet long between miter sills and 34,8 feet wide and provided a lift of approximately 1.3 feet. To accomodate the lock, the old river channel was cut off and a 2,400 foot-long, 50-foot wide canal with a depth of five feet constructed. Aside from other work over the years, a renovation of the lock occurred in 1903-1904. New timber gates were installed and the lower wing cribs were removed to low water and rebuilt with cement masonry to the top of the lock walls. The work was faced with cut-stone masonry. The Berlin Lock was one of nine locks constructed on the Upper Fox River/Portage Canal between Oshkosh and Portage for the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Project. The project was advanced by private interests from 1829 to 1848 and 1853 to 1872, by the State of Wisconsin from 1848 to 1853, and by the federal government from 1872. The Wisconsin River part of the project was officially abandoned in 1886, and the Upper Fox Section was turned over to the state in 1962. The Berlin Lock was the second lock upstream from Oshkosh and was one of five new Upper Fox locks built by the federal government in the 1870s. An original contract for the stone masonry lock was awarded to C.C. Barker & Son in July 1875. The contract was annulled nearly three months later for unsatisfactory performance after excavation for the lock pit had been finished; who resumed the work is not apparent. The lock - located on what is now the southern edge of Berlin - officially opened to navigation 9/20/1877, although work was not completed until June 1878. The lock project cost $44,371. The lock continued in seasonal operation until closed by the federal government on July 27, 1951. The other eight locks on the Upper Fox also were closed that year. In 1962, ownership of the property was transferred from the federal government to the state for use by the Wisconsin Conservation Department. Before the transfer could occur, a 1958 work plan called for removing the lower lock gates and placing them flat on the bottom of the lock chamber; retaining the upper lock gates as part of a core wall for a dike; removing and salvaging all hardware, equipment, and machinery; dumping the lock and wing walls into the lock chamber; and building a dike across the lock. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Corps of Engineers, Annual Report for Fox-Wisconsin Project, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1890, 1904, 1917, 1922, 1928, 1952. (B) Document Package Entitled "Transfer of Upper Fox River to State of Wisconsin," containing map, letters, reports, etc., from Corps of Engineers, 1958-1959. (C) Corps of Engineers, map entitled Lake Winnebago, Upper Fox and Wolf Rivers, Wisconsin, 1916-1921; revised 1928, 1933, 1949. (D) Samuel Mermin, The Fox-Wisconsin Rivers Improvement, pp. 1-100, 135, 162 passim. (E) Richard N. Current, The History of Wisconsin, 2:19-21. (F) Robert C. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, 3:88, 136-137. (G) Corps of Engineers, land tract map for Berlin Lock and Dam, 1958. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |