Property Record
MAIN AND VAN ALTENA
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Eerste Geformeerde Kerk |
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| Other Name: | First Reformed Church |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 81484 |
| Location (Address): | MAIN AND VAN ALTENA |
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| County: | Sheboygan |
| City: | Cedar Grove |
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| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1905 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | English Revival Styles |
| Structural System: | Balloon Frame |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | Leenhouts and Guthrie |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
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| 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, State Historic Preservation Office. From the mid-1840s until 1890, Wisconsin was a major destination for Dutch immigrants and a stronghold of Dutch Calvinist Protestantism. Among the state’s earliest Dutch settlements was the area that became Cedar Grove, where settlers arrived in 1847. Seven years later, they founded the Eerste Gereformeerde Kerk. In 1905, the congregation built this picturesque clapboard-and-shingle edifice. The focal point is a square steeple with a pyramidal roof. Gabled dormers, filled with wheel windows and louvers, hang from the steeple’s second stage, which is clad with wooden shingles. But it is the skillful incorporation of homey elements that gives this church its charm. The variety of gabled roofs, the ribbons of small square windows, and the prominent knee braces all evoke the domestic Arts and Crafts movement, as does a ribbon of stained-glass windows framed by a shallow pointed arch, which lights the sanctuary. More traditional Gothic Revival references include pointed windows at the vestibules and arched entryways with heavy plank doors. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. The Improvement Bulletin 1/28/1904. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |