Property Record
423 BLUFF ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | A.A. Aldrich House |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 74613 |
| Location (Address): | 423 BLUFF ST |
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| County: | Rock |
| City: | Beloit |
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| Year Built: | |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1981 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Queen Anne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Bluff Street Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 1/7/1983 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Multiple Resources of Beloit |
| Additional Information: | An architecturally significant example of the Queen Anne style in Beloit, this highly angular and insistently asymmetrical house rises two stories before exploding upward in a profusion of vertical elements. With massing dominated by successively projecting amd receding bays, and a silhouette characterized by steeply pitched intersecting gables, the house has a variegated composition that contrasts with its smooth clapboarded and shingled surface. The front(west) facade is embraced by a broad veranda, supported by thin Tuscan columns and surmounted by a pediment with decorative moldings. The veranda gently curves around the south corner and extends northward into a porte-cochere. Above this wide base, the house spirals upward in a pyramidal shape, anchored on the north side by a three-story square tower with hip roof. The gable cornices are crsiply molded and, in the second story bays, are decorated with geometric and sunburst ornament and crowned with bulbous finials. Another second story bay is slightly curved, echoing the veranda below. The rusticated concrete block foundation, second story shingles, and leaded glass contrast with the taut and narrrow clapboarding. But the exterior treatment is dramatically chaste in counterpoint to the agitated massing. With its location to the south of Field Park and the Christian Scientist Church, the house announces the continuation of the residential character of the Bluff Street Historic District to the south. Although the house, built in 1890, was originally owned by Mrs. S.H. Fenton, it is historically associated with A.A. Aldrich, who purchased it in 1897, and embellished it in 1903. Aldrich, who helped found the Beloit Iron Works (later Beloit Corporation) in 1885, was president of the Iron Works while he resided at this address. Aldrich remained preisdent until his death in 1931, overseeing the company's rise to preeminence in the paper-making machinery field. For many years, the house has been owned by the Beloit Foundation, a local charitable group largely funded by the Beloit Corporation and controlled by Aldrich's descendants. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Historic Preservation Guidelines, City of Beloit, 1997. (B) Beloit Tax Rolls, RCHS Archives. (C) Book of Beloit, p. 212. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |