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The Christian Turck House is a log farmhouse from the late 1830s which currently serves as a
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 0 of 5).tif
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 1 of 5).tif
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 2 of 5).tif
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 3 of 5).tif
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 4 of 5).tif
File:Christian Turck House, Kirchhayn, Washington County, WI HABS WIS,66-KIRHA.V,1- (sheet 5 of 5).tif
By 1971 the NRHP nomination described the condition of the house as "ruinous." Vandalism could not be prevented in its location near Kirchhayn, and it was facing demolition. Recognizing its importance as a representative of its style, the State Historical Society bought it. Because it couldn't be moved as a whole, it was carefully disassembled, with each piece numbered, and placed in storage. A few years later, the house was moved to Old World Wisconsin and reconstructed as the Schottler House - an example German farmhouse.
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
called the ''Schottler House'' at Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin is an open-air museum located near Eagle, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It depicts housing and the daily life of settlers in 19th-century Wisconsin, with separate areas representing the traditions of different ...
in Eagle, Wisconsin
Eagle is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. At the 2010 census, the population was 1,950. The village is located within the Town of Eagle.
History
The town's name comes from an 1836 incident when pioneer Thomas Sugden and t ...
, United States. It was originally built by a German immigrant near Germantown, Wisconsin
Germantown is a village in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 19,749 at the 2010 census. The village surrounds the Town of Germantown. In July 2007, Germantown was ranked the 30th most appealing place to live in th ...
. In 1973 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
In the late 1830s Christian Turck walked into a swamp near his home a mile south of Kirchhayn in Washington County and began to cut cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
logs to build a house. He squared them and laid them horizontally on top of each other, notching the corners to hold them together. A summer beam runs down the center of the house at each level, with other beams connected to it by mortise and tenon
A mortise and tenon (occasionally mortice and tenon) joint connects two pieces of wood or other material. Woodworkers around the world have used it for thousands of years to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at right ...
joints. Perrin points out that in this eastern German ''Blockbau'' style, the logs aren't fitted as tightly as in most Norwegian log construction, since the logs would shrink anyway, and chinking would be needed. This house was chinked with clay, rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
straw, and lime plaster. The resulting log cabin was large - two stories plus attic. Across the front (sunny south) Christian built a full-width porch sheltered by a cantilevered shed roof. On the back the roof extends down to a one-story level, adding a couple rooms and giving the building a saltbox
A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a woode ...
profile. With Near his house, Christian laid up a brick structure which served as a smoke house, bake oven and summer kitchen.
Perrin points out that the Turck house is important because few examples of this German Blockbau style (solid logs) remain in Wisconsin, in contrast to the more common German Fachwerk
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
style, where the framing logs are filled with brick or some other material. Because of this, the Historic American Buildings Survey
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
carefully documented the house in 1936. At that time John Schottler was living in the house and the surveyor described its condition as excellent in one place and fair in another. That 1933 survey produced these documents:
By 1971 the NRHP nomination described the condition of the house as "ruinous." Vandalism could not be prevented in its location near Kirchhayn, and it was facing demolition. Recognizing its importance as a representative of its style, the State Historical Society bought it. Because it couldn't be moved as a whole, it was carefully disassembled, with each piece numbered, and placed in storage. A few years later, the house was moved to Old World Wisconsin and reconstructed as the Schottler House - an example German farmhouse.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turck, Christian, House German-American culture in Wisconsin Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Museums in Waukesha County, Wisconsin Houses in Waukesha County, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Waukesha County, Wisconsin