1125 Western Ave

Summary

Wilhelm Tischer Blacksmith Shop
1125 Western Avenue
Jackson, Washington County
Date of Construction: c. 1870

The Wilhelm Tischer Blacksmith Shop operated for over one hundred years as a blacksmith, fence-maker, and carriage- and wagon-maker for the surrounding agricultural community of Kirchhayn in the Town of Jackson, Washington County, WI. The shop, which was established by Wilhelm Tischer, Sr. in c. 1870, was one of the first blacksmith shops in the community. It was passed down through various members of the Tischer-Woldt family to become the last remaining blacksmith shop in the area by the 1970s. The shop provided vital services to the surrounding farmers and merchants. Tischer and his apprentices and other staff built carriages and wagons, repaired farming tools, shod horses, fabricated metal fencing, and solved a wide variety of miscellaneous mechanical issues that arose, metal-related or not. Wilhelm Sr. passed the shop down to his son, Wilhelm Jr., who ran it until his death. The shop then passed to his brother-in-law Bruno Woldt, who had apprenticed there since he was a teenager. Woldt not only preserved his family’s blacksmithing tradition, he acquired welding skills and expertise in repairing motorized farm equipment, keeping up with the changing needs of the community.

The business evolved from early wagon- and carriage-making and farm tool repairs to new trades like automobile and tractor repairs in the 1920s. General blacksmithing was performed in the first story while wagon and carriage-making were in the second story. Once carriage-making demand declined in the early twentieth century, the upper rooms were rented out for events. As one of the earliest industrial activities in Wisconsin, blacksmithing was essential to supporting agriculture, from supporting the needs of livestock to making wagons and carriages for transporting goods to trade at market.

Sitting on a fieldstone foundation, the shop is a gabled, timber-frame building clad with wood drop siding. The design is an excellent example of the now-rare Boomtown Style that was prevalent along commercial strips in small communities in southeastern Wisconsin. In the 1870s, Boomtown-Style buildings began to emerge in Jackson and nearby towns, indicating a transformation of the region from pioneering settlement to a center of commerce and signaling the optimism residents had for future prosperity. The hallmark of the Boomtown Style is the false front, which makes the façade appear larger and simulates the more ornate masonry edifices of urban centers with inexpensive and readily available wood.

Today, the shop serves as an excellent example of a typical blacksmith, still evident in features such as the brick double-fuel forge, built-in workbenches, anvil stands, and hoistway with intact pulleys for transporting materials up to and down from the second floor where the carriages were assembled. Walking into the shop gives the sense of walking back to the nineteenth century when Tischer’s blacksmithing work helped the farmers in his community grow, trade their wares, and thrive.

The shop is privately owned; please respect their privacy.

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