| 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, Division of Historic Preservation.
Believed to be the first building designed by Weeks in Sheboygan.
VERY EXTENSIVELY ALTERED AND MOVED IN 1926 ACCORDING TO PLANS OF E.A. STUBENRAUCH.
2020-2024 Targeted Resurvey of Sheboygan recommendation write-up:
Sheathed with clapboard, this Colonial Revival-style church is dominated by a two-story portico; a square, louvred belltower capped with a short dome rises from the gabled roof. The front-facing pediment includes an oval window with wooden tracery and wood trim, while the plain wooden frieze reads “Lakeland University,” beneath which is “Est. 1862.” Set within the portico is a one-story, flat-roofed entry that features replacement wood-and-glass double doors flanked on either side by a four-over-four-light, double-hung window. The remaining windows along both the first and second floors consist of symmetrically arranged, six-over-six, double-hung sash. Both the east and west side walls carry triple-hung, stained-glass windows. A flat-roofed, two-story wing (added in 1962) extends from the rear which features symmetrically arranged, multiple-light, double windows throughout. A one-story connector wing, completed in 1989, extends from the west wall of the church to the building immediately to the east.
Founded in 1838, the First Baptist Church congregation constructed a Greek Revival-style church at 724 Wisconsin Avenue. The basement was complete as of 1849 and services were held there; construction was completed and the Arvin L. Weeks-designed building was dedicated in 1851. In 1926, it was moved to this location on Ontario Avenue and was significantly remodeled and expanded to the building that is seen today. The remodeling plans were completed by Edgar A. Stubenrauch. In 1962, a $42,000 educational unit, designed by Eugene Wasserman, was added to the rear of the building. Along with the rest of the buildings on the south side of the 500 block, the church was designated a Sheboygan County landmark in 1977.
After renting space in the rear educational unit, the advertising firm of Jacobson Rost (est. 1956) purchased the church in 1989 and completed $350,000 worth of renovations, which included connecting the building to the one immediately west of it, in which the firm also operated. When Jacobson Rost relocated to Milwaukee, the building became part of Jake’s Café, an office community for start-ups, free-lancers and entrepreneurs which operated out of two additional buildings to the west. In 2022, Lakeland University purchased the four buildings that comprised Jake’s Café, which includes the former Baptist Church. |
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| Bibliographic References: | BUILDING AGE AND NATIONAL BUILDER, 1/1929, VOL. 51, #1.
LJM Architects, Inc. City of Sheboygan, Wisconsin: Architectural and Historical Intensive Survey Report. City of Sheboygan Historic Preservation Commission & Department of City Development; 2002, 2004 & 2006.
Citations for the 2020-2024 Targeted Resurvey recommendation write-up:
“First Baptist Church Dedication Sunday,” The Sheboygan Press, 20 December 1926; “First Baptist Church Oks $42,000 Addition,” The Sheboygan Press, 5 May 1961, 7; “Baptist Church Educational Unit to be Dedicated in Rites Sunday,” The Sheboygan Press, 3 May 1962, 17. In the 1980s, the Sheboygan Baptist congregation joined the Baptist church in Sheboygan Falls and relocated there.
Pat Tearney, “Jacobson Rost Now Has a Real Sanctuary,” The Sheboygan Press, 2 December 1990, 13; Brandon Reid, “Lakeland University Acquires Jake’s Café,” The Sheboygan Press, 11 March 2022, A1-A2; Gary C. Klein, “City’s Oldest Church Building Still in Existence,” The Sheboygan Press, 26 May 2022, A4. |
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