| Additional Information: | The main building on the campus of the Marantha Baptist Bible College is the facility that was once the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, a Catholic college and later a preparatory school that existed in Watertown between 1872 and 1968.
The Holy Cross Fathers, who were the clergy at St. Bernard's Catholic Church, established this college in 1872. It was a private Catholic college with a regular college curriculum. The fathers purchased the old Patrick Rogan farm from Henry Bertram, who acquired it after the Civil War. The two-story brick house on the property was converted into a guest house for the school and it still exists, although attached to the main building. In 1873 the main section of the building was constructed. The college operated until 1886, when it was converted into a normal school for Holy Cross Fathers, but in 1889, the school was again converted into a regular Catholic college. In 1889 the east wing to the main building was built. The northwest wing was added in 1891 and the southwest wing in 1894, completing the make-up of the building.
In 1912 the college became a high-school age seminary for men who were interested in a Holy Cross vocation. This operated until 1955, when the fathers again converted the school into a military academy. The military academy operated until 1968. In that year the Baptist Church purchased the facility and began operating it as a Baptist College. The Marantha Baptist College exists today. They have added several new buildings on the campus but have maintained the historic Sacred Heart College building.
This building is significant for local history under National Register criterion A because it is the historic facility of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, an important long-term private religious college and preparatory school.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College was one of two private colleges in Watertown during the nineteenth century. It was connected to the community by its affiliation with the Holy Cross fathers, the clergy of St. Bernard's Catholic Church. It represents the many small, private colleges that existed in Wisconsin in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many of which have disappeared or been radically altered today. In fact, almost all of the nearby Northwestern College has been demolished. So it is significant that the entire historic building of the Sacred Heart Campus still is extant. Because it was an important and long-term secondary and higher educational institution in Watertown, the old Sacred Heart College is significant for local history.
Built for the most part of cream brick during the years 1873 to 1897, the Sacred Heart College complex is dominated from the east by the 1889 three-story building designed in the Romanesque style that was built in front of the original college building constructed in 1873 characterized by arched windows ornamented by raised brick window hoods and gabled roof dormers. Extending at the rear of these two buildings are the Romanesque Revival styled chapel featuring large arched long stained glass windows in gabled bays on the south and north elevations on the north side of the courtyard and the gymnasium built in 1894 on the south side of the courtyard also features arched long windows on the north elevation facing the courtyard and shed roofed, dormers on the south side.
The remaining large building attached to the complex is an Italianate styled housed built before 1873 when the land for the college was obtained from Henry Bertram.
The main building built in 1889 is a three-story hipped roofed building with chambered end bays, a shallow, projecting entrance bay with gabled roof and small cross gables also prjecting slightly from the brick elevations on the third story of the facade as well as the side elevations. Fan shaped or round arched transom window over paired rectangular windows accented by arched brick moulding ornament the cross gables on the upper story while the remaining windows are rectangular with straight flat lintels or raised brick moulding in a straight line above the window. A one-story flat roofed porch supported by brick piers extends across the cross topped gabled entrance bay.
The Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College complex is significant under criterion C as an example of the Romanesque Revival style. A compex of buildings that exhibit the Romanesque Revival in various interpretations, Sacred Heart College is visually characterized by the three-story building constructed in 1889 as the main building and facade of the complex. Main Hall exhibits the greatest degree of Romanesque Revival character in the complex. The characteristic round arches of the Romanesque style characterize this well-preserved college building and the additions of the chapel, the gymnasium wings at the rear as well as the original 1873 building in the center. Also exhibiting Romanesque Revival influence, the other two historic 19th century significant examples of school architecture are Union School #3 at 505 Lincoln Street (21-29) and St. Bernard's School at 111 So. Montgomery (54-6). |
|---|
| Bibliographic References: | (A) Sanborn Insurance Maps 1884, 1890, 1901, 1905.
(B) "Sacred Heart College Opened its Doors in 1872, 27 students enrolled," Watertown Daily Times Centennial Issue, June 26, 1954, n.p.
(C) Watertown Wisconsin Centennial 1854-1954, n.p., 1954, p. 28.
(D) Sacred Heart and Marantha College newspaper subject files, Watertown Public Library. |
|---|
