click zoom to display a high-res image
Summary
Lorine Niedecker Cottage
W7307 Blackhawk Island Road, Town of Sumner, Jefferson County
Date of Construction: 1946
The Lorine Niedecker Cottage was constructed in 1946 for the notable objectivist poet Lorine Niedecker and is a simple 20 foot by 20 foot single story wood frame building with painted split log siding resting on an elevated concrete foundation. The building sits near the road on a wooded lot along the north bank of the Rock River near Lake Koshkonong in Jefferson County. The rustic style of the cottage is common among small buildings in resort settings during the 1940s and is marked by the use of log siding, low-pitched roof, and asymmetrical fenestration.
The area around Blackhawk Island, where Lorine Niedecker spent much of her life, in the southwestern corner of Jefferson County is primarily rural with the nearest community being Fort Atkinson. The area is generally flat marshland with winding rivers and dotted with lakes, most notably Lake Koshkonong. Floods have been a part of life along this section of the Rock River for a long time with records indicating water rising over 8 feet at least five times just in the twentieth century. It is this rural landscape, marshy and wooded that permeated Niedecker’s poetry.
The cottage was constructed in 1946 by Niedecker’s father at her behest. Prior to the construction of the cottage, Lorine Niedecker lived with her family not far away on Blackhawk Island. Niedecker is widely considered to be one of the seminal objectivist poets (including William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, and Louis Zukofsky) of the mid-twentieth century. While her work was largely unknown during her lifetime, she took part in the discourse on modern poetics from the 1930s through the 1960s and has posthumously been published a number of times. Her work, often focusing on the concept of place, biography and the subconscious, is considered some of the finest examples of objectivist, surrealist, and folk poetry of the period. In 1963, Lorine Niedecker married Al Millen, and the two moved to Milwaukee the following year. They also constructed a larger house on the same property near the river and retired to Blackhawk Island in 1968. Niedecker died a few years later.
Property Details
Resources Within The Property
Designations
State & National Registers of Historic Places
The State Register and National Register recognize buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that are significant in national, state, or local history. The State Historic Preservation Office in conjunction with the National Park Service maintains the list for Wisconsin and makes the data available to the public for research and education.
Questions?
Wondering about if your property is eligible or have other questions about the registers, reach out today!
Email UsAttribution
For a credit line: Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Unique Identifier.
The Unique Identifier can be found at the top or bottom of the page for each item. The name of a downloaded file is NOT the unique identifier.
For bibliographic citations please consult the UW-Madison Libraries Citation Research Guide to ensure compliance with appropriate style guidelines.
Lorine Niedecker Historic Marker
Blackhawk Island Rd., Town of Sumner, near Fort Atkinson
