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But the roof needs replacing, as well as the bathroom, windows, heating and air conditioning. There’s black mold embedded in the plaster. The ceilings and floors sag because a major support beam was cut to change the main stairwell’s direction.
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The Henry Goerke House, built prior to 1853 and located at 125 S. Hill St. in Fountain City, Wis., is the oldest existing building in Buffalo County. The Fountain City Historical Society acquired the property in 2003 and is now selling the historical landmark due to lack of funds and volunteers required for its restoration. Bids, with a minimun of $65,000, will be taken until July 28.
(Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
Many may think buyer-beware, but local history buffs look past the rough interior and see potential in the Henry Goerke House. Possibly, it’s a goldmine — maybe not in dollars but in history, they say.
With dashed dreams, the Fountain City Historical Society has decided to sell the Henry Goerke House, the oldest existing building in Buffalo County. Henry Goerke, the county’s third settler, built the house in 1853.
The sale would include the grounds that extend from Hill Street to Highway 35 and a covenant to ensure the buyer doesn’t tear the Goerke home down, make it into rental property or break up the land for commercial property.
A restrictive easement would permanently require the buyer and all future owners to maintain the historical appearance of the exterior and to preserve the grounds open to the highway below, Society president Ardy Keilholtz said.
The Society will also favor buyers wanting to preserve the interior with the necessary modern adaptations, she said. The minimum bid required to cover obligations of the Society would have to start at $65,000. All bids are requested by July 28.
The cost of renovating the Henry Goerke House into a federally registered historic house museum soared past what a committee of long-time residents and historians had in mind to save the 155-year-old brick home from being torn down.
The Fountain City Historical Society bought the property in 2003. An architectural Historic Structures Report was completed in 2004.
The Goerke House Committee made significant headway in restoration while waiting for the report. An added front and back porch was removed to restore the original entryway. One roof on the split-level was redone with wooden shakes. The interior was stripped down to the plaster and floor boards.
Then came the bill for meeting government codes and historic requirements. Handicap accessibility, public restroom requirements and other historic improvements — such as using era-specific paint — brought the total renovation price tag to more than $200,000, Keilholtz said.
“When we first got it everybody was gung-ho,” Keilholtz said. “All these things added up and people backed away like the house was on fire.”
Pulling up the blinds from a broken living room window in the Goerke House, Keilholtz said there were a lot of good intentions with the home that never materialized.
“Looking from these windows you can imagine how many people sat in this sill looking out at the river,” she said.
Selling the Henry Goerke House might be the only way to preserve its historic integrity now, said Buffalo County historian and retired circuit court judge Gary Schlosstein.
Schlosstein has engrossed himself in the history of the Goerkes and their traditional I-framed home that was popular in the mid 19th century.
A lot can be found on Tommy Holmes, who landed by chance in Fountain City in 1839. Buffalo County’s first settler was actually frozen in while trading furs with American Indian tribes, Schlosstein said.
Goerke, a Galena, Ill., native, went into partnership with Holmes in the fur trade and arrived in the county in 1845. His wife, Katherine, was Buffalo County’s first woman settler, arriving in 1847.
Back in those days, people called Fountain City Holmes Landing and the settlement was considered the county seat. The Goerke’s brick home also served as the county’s first courthouse for seven years, and the upstairs was used for the first meetings of the Buffalo County Board.
Holmes eventually married Chief Wapasha’s niece and set out to settle many other American cities in Wisconsin and Montana, Schlosstein said. Goerke plotted the central Fountain City area and granted many of the first building deeds. He established a saw mill business just before he died in his late 50s.
Kathryn remarried a Dr. Bodenheim, but later divorced and is now buried next to Henry. He was the love of her life, Schlosstein said.
Most of the remodeling in the Goerke home was done in its first 15 years of existence. The home passed through several local families before ending up in Schlosstein and the Society’s hands.
“I think everybody at this stage of the game would be happy to see it properly taken care of, properly restored and properly preserved, whether that’s in our hands or someone else’s,” Schlosstein said.
Contact Amber Dulek at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
gracy wrote on Jan 16, 2009 6:48 AM:
This website is a historical site.please provide more information about this topic.
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