| Additional Information: | 1984/86--Chester D. Shepard was Secretary/Treasurer of Mace Laboratories, Inc. His house on Lake Road was constructed in 1933.
The Chester Shepard house is situated on the northeast part of Doty Island on a small peninsula bordering the Fox River and Lake Winnebago. Situated on a large parcel of land, the Shepard House is a rectangular brick two 1/2 story residence from the Colonial Revival Period of Construction. The foundations are concrete, the bonding is American, and the multi-gabled roof and dormers are covered with asphalt shingles. The irregular fenestration features double hung multi-paned windows.
Retaining integrity of site and form, the Chester D. Shepard House is architecturally significant as an outstanding example of the Colonial Revival Period of Construction.
2009-No apparent exterior changes since last surveyed in 1984. Still exhibits a high degree of integrity and is an excellent example of the Colonial Revival style, which was done by prominent Chicago architect Alfred Granger.
The following information is from the 2009 Intensive Survey of Menasha:
Essentially two-and-one-half stories tall, this English Colonial Revival-style "country house" is faced with whitewashed brick and generally breaks down into three somewhat distinct wings. The primary residential wing is the westernmost section and features a central, recessed entry with sidelights. Three, regularly placed, six-over-six sash windows with shutters occupy the wall space above and west of the entry, while four, narrow, four-over-four-light sashes are found to the east/left. A slightly projecting section to the east carries three, regularly arranged sash windows on each level; the upper-level examples of which terminate as wall dormers. Slightly shorter than the first wing, a gabled wing (likely a service wing) connects the main block to the significantly large garage section on the north; the roof of which carries four hipped-roof dormers. The garage appears to provide space for four vehicles. Exterior brick chimneys rise from either end of the west wing, while an additional chimney rises from the roofline of the central section.
Built between 1932 and 1933, the home's original owners were Chester D. and Barbara Shepard. Barbara was the daughter of architect Alfred Hoyt Granger and it was Granger who was responsible for the home's design. Chester D. Shepard was born in New York in 1893 and, by no later than 1927, he was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In October 1929, he married Lake Forest, Illinois, native, Barbara Granger Cowles, who had become a widow just two years previous and had two daughters, Sarah and Mary. By 1930, the Shepard family of four (along with three live-in servants) was renting the former Frank D. Lake house at 338 Park Street and Shepard was identified as a stockbroker working for the stock exchange. In 1932, construction began on their Lake Road residence, which was estimated to cost $25,000. Shepard continued to work as a stockbroker through the 1940s, after which he became the secretary and treasurer for Mace Laboratories, his son-in-law (Calvin) of whom was the company's vice president. Chester died in his Menasha home in June 1980, while Barbara passed away in February 1995, while in Arizona. |
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| Bibliographic References: | A. 1934 Neenah Menasha Directory.
B. 1933 Tax Roll, City of Menasha; page 46.
"Chester Shepard Home has Art Objects, Museum Quality Pieces," and "Chester Shepard Home to be Viewed by Participants in AAUW "Homes Beautiful," both unsourced and undated newpaper articles in the "Homes" file at the Menasha Historical Society, cite Alfred Granger--Mrs. Shepard's father--as the home's architect.
"New Building for March is $25,600," Appleton Post-Crescent, 1 April 1932, 10/3.
Granger-Shepard family vital information available on the Harold Thomas Wyman family tree, Available at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1026770/person/-1346529368, Accessed in June 2009.
U.S. Census information, 1930.
Neenah-Menasha City Directory, Various dates reviewed between 1944 and 1996. |
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