| Additional Information: | This property is comprised of a number of periods of construction that range from 1904 through the 1960s. Beginning from the east, this two-story portion of the complex was built in the mid-1960s to serve as the “new” Waukesha County Home and Hospital. Featuring a projecting, center entry sheathed with stone, the remainder of this flat-roofed wing is largely covered with brick, while stone sheathes the space in between the windows along both floors, as well as the basement level. A short wing at the east was once connected to the 1904 county insane asylum facility (no longer extant). A southern-extending wing connects the mid-1960s facility to the oldest portion of the complex (originally built in 1904 but remodeled to its current appearance in the 1930s). Sheathed with brick, rising from a stone-faced foundation and featuring regular window placement along each floor, this block turns west, where a two-story projecting wing is located. This older section, which is trimmed with stone, is again recessed as it progresses west and includes a slightly projecting entry. The building terminates with a two-story, flat-roofed wing that is, again, covered with red brick and is trimmed in stone along each level. The west end of this block includes a wing that extends to the north.
Although significantly altered with additions, this facility--or at least the grounds upon which it sits--has served as the Waukesha County Poor House and the Waukesha County Asylum for the Insane since 1904. As of 1866, Waukesha County took over for the care of those mentally infirm and poor, making them one of the early counties in the state to operate such a system of care. The first facility was built in 1874 on the grounds of the McNaughton farmstead in the Town of Vernon. In 1902, as a result of state legislation, the poor and insane were to be taken care of by their respective county with the support of county taxes. The Milwaukee firm of Van Ryn & DeGelleke was chosen to design the new facility, which was completed in 1904.
Built as two separate buildings, the insane asylum (no longer extant) provided separate quarters (wings) for male and female patients and was located to the east, while the poor house was located a short distance to the west. Barns and other farm support buildings were also located on the property (a barn remains extant to the east of the facility). The county poor were transferred from the Town of Vernon facility and placed in the insane asylum until their separate poor house quarters were completed later that year. Sanborn maps indicate that the first addition was made to the west side of the poor house after 1929 (likely in the 1930s). By no later than 1949, the name of the facility had changed from the County Insane Asylum and Poor Farm to the Waukesha County Hospital Home & Infirmary. It was in the circa-1950s that an additional wing was added to the westernmost end of the poor house. Dairy farm operations ceased in 1965 (although hog raising continued and soybean, oats and hay crops were cultivated) and it was at that time the mid-1960s block was constructed, which then connected the former insane asylum building (no longer extant) to the poor house. The facility, which would thereafter be known as Northview Hospital and Northview Home, would ultimately be used as a nursing home, which continued into the late-1980s. The easternmost and oldest wing of the facility was demolished in the early 2000s and the structure currently functions as the Waukesha County Huber Facility. |
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| Bibliographic References: | “Waukesha County Asylum for Insane was Voted in 1902,” Information cited as compiled from the Waukesha Freeman and available online at www.linkstothepast.com/waukesha/poordarmwauk.php, Accessed May 2014.
Fire Insurance map, “Waukesha, Wis.,” 1911, 1917, 1922, 1929, 1929 (updated to 1949); Foss-Jasma, Inc., “Addition to the Present Infirmary Building,” undated, and Boswell Associates, “Northview Home & Hospital, Code Corrections,” 20 November 1979, On file at the Wisconsin Architectural Archive, Milwaukee Public (Central) Library; “Waukesha County Farm Dairying to be Curtailed,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, 17 February 1965; Alvin Jansma, Obituary, The Milwaukee Sentinel, 13 January 1968. |
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