The Bascom B. Clarke House in Madison, Wisconsin was built in 1899, designed in Queen Anne style with Gothic Revival details for Clarke, who founded the magazine ''American Thresherman''. In 1980 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

History

Bascom B. Clarke was born in Virginia in 1851. In 1857, his family headed west, where his father founded the town of Mount Adams on the White River in Arkansas. After the Civil War Bascom lived in Colfax, Indiana. With only a few weeks of formal education in his whole life, he became postmaster and published a newspaper. In 1873 he married M. Belle Watkins. Their beginnings were humble - Bascom later said that their first home in Indiana was "furnished with a borrowed table and a borrowed bedstead" - but he made a small fortune selling threshing machines. In 1890 Clarke moved to Madison, continuing in the threshing machine business. There he helped organize the Dane County Telephone Company with

Robert La Follette Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the 20th Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his l ...

and others. In 1898 he began publishing ''American Thresherman'', the only magazine at that time to focus on the mechanization of farming.. With . Bascom regularly contributed a column called "Uncle Silas" in which he shared his own musings, like "Most of the skyscrapers in the cities have farmer boys as tenants." In 1899 Clarke had the architectural firm Claude & Starck of Madison design this house. The firm had just formed the year before and would go on to design many

Prairie Style Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hip roof, hipped roofs with broad Overhang (architecture), ove ...

libraries around the state, but this early design is residential and traditional. The house stands 2.5 stories, built of wood. The complex roof, asymmetric gables and bays fall within the Queen Anne architectural style that was popular at the time. Yet the pointed-arch church-like windows in the dormer ends draw from

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style and some of the woodwork on the porch draws from Stick style. Inside was dark woodwork, a brick fireplace, and bookcases with Prairie Style leaded-glass doors. The house cost $4,500 to build. Bascom was also instrumental in establishing a

Masonic temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...

in Madison. He died in 1929. In 1980 his house was added to the NRHP as an early design of Claude and Starck and as home of one of Madison's leading citizens. The house is now located within the

Orton Park Historic District The Orton Park Historic District is a residential historic district on the near east side of Madison, Wisconsin. The district is centered on Orton Park, the first public park in Madison, and includes 56 houses facing or near to the park. The fir ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Madison, Wisconsin Houses in Madison, Wisconsin Queen Anne architecture in Wisconsin Houses completed in 1899