724 O'CONNELL ST

724 O'CONNELL ST

Jefferson

Watertown

1914

1986

warehouse

Astylistic Utilitarian Building

Brick

No

Windows have been bricked up; wooden service doors; front and side elevations divided by brick applied pilasters. This is the complex that was built for the Watertown Canning Company. The Watertown Canning Company was organized in 1912-13, primarily to can peas grown in the area. The factory was built here. By 1915 there were five buildings to the complex: a three-story frame factory, a two-story brick warehouse, a brick powerhouse, a frame can warehouse, and a frame viner shed with attached silo. While all the buildings were still extant in 1936, today, the frame canning factory and the frame can warehouse are no longer extant. This complex has some historical interest as the site of the old Watertown Canning Company. During the early years of the twentieth century, many canning factories sprang up to process the increasing vegetable and fruit crops the state was producing. This canning factory was a part of this trend. However, since the original canning factory no longer exists on the site, this complex probably does not meet the eligibility criteria. The existing buildings were adjuncts to the canning factory itself and have little significance by themselves. One of the few historic industrial buildings remaining in the city of Watertown, the Canning Company building is not architecturally significant because of a lack of architectural integrity.

(A) "Peas Canned in City Sold Under Several Brands," Watertown Daily Times Centennial Issue, July 1, 1936, n.p. (B) John H. Ott, ed., Jefferson County Wisconsin and Its People, Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917, pp. 129-130. (C) Sanborn-Perris Insurance Maps 1901-1936.

Not Listed