| Additional Information: | The Sales Room was added in 1897. After the woolen mills ceased, the building was occupied by the post office, the Falls Building and Loan Co., Falls Bakery, and Falls Glass Service.
Previously surveyed in 1997.
In 1835, Silas Stedman of Massachusetts happened on the cascades of the Sheboygan River. Recognizing this as an ideal site for a sawmill, he and several land speculators founded a town at the falls. Industries soon clustered along the river to take advantage of the abundant water power. Among these was the Brickner Woolen Mills. The firm began as a custom mill for local farmers, but George Brickner, its founder, later added a mass-production department. By 1900, his employees were weaving 250,000 pounds of wool annually into shawls, dress goods, flannels, cashmeres, and blankets.
The mill is a dour utilitarian building of cream brick, mostly three stories tall, with a monotonous rhythm of segmentally arched windows, characteristic of Victorian industrial buildings. A five-story tower with a mansard roof, clad with tin, makes the building more impressive. The smokestack balances the composition and reminds us of the building’s former industrial function; the Alexander Company rehabilitated it into apartments.
"Built in 1882, after noise forced the company to erect an office outside the mill and thus be removed from all the confusion. In 1897, an addition to the south was erected and used as a warehouse and stock room." Discovering Historic Sheboygan Falls Walking Tour, not dated. |
|---|
