The McCoy Farmhouse is a historic house located at 2925 Syene Road in Fitchburg,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The Italianate farmhouse was built in 1861 on an early Wisconsin tobacco farm. From 1949 to 1978 microbiologist Elizabeth McCoy lived there. In 1980 the house 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 ...

History

In 1846 Henry Yager bought a 160-acre tract of land which included the parcel the house is built on and began farming. In 1853 two men from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

- Ralph Pomeroy and Jacob R. Hiestand - tried growing

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

on ten acres of Yager's land, and it produced "a very large growth, estimated to yield at least a tone per acre." This is believed to be one of the first successful tobacco crops in Wisconsin. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the farm experienced a boom when tobacco from what had become the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

became unavailable. Benjamin Brown purchased the farm from Yager in 1861 and built the farmhouse in the same year. As Brown's land was already prepared for tobacco farming, his farm was more successful than other area farms, and its value increased fivefold by his death in 1874. By this time, Dane County led the state in tobacco production, a status it held through 1911 when the farm ceased its tobacco production.Shoptaugh, Terry L., and Whitney Gould. .

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. December 3, 1979. . In 1949, University of Wisconsin–Madison

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...

Elizabeth McCoy moved into the house. McCoy, a full professor at the university, was one of the first prominent female microbiologists. McCoy's work included bacterial research, studies of the microbiology of water bodies, and

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

research which led to the discovery of the first commonly-used strain of the drug. McCoy died in 1978 and left her house to the

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is the independent nonprofit technology transfer organization serving the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Morgridge Institute for Research. It provides significant research support, granting tens ...

with the intent that it be preserved.

Architecture

The two-story Italianate house is built from cream-colored brick which Brown imported from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

. The front facade features a central entrance and tall windows with stone

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

s. A long front porch originally extended along the facade; while it had been replaced by a smaller porch by the time of the house's National Register nomination, another long porch has since been constructed. The house's

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

is surrounded by a

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and topped by a small

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

. A two-story wing extends from the back of the house.

References

{{reflist Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Houses in Dane County, Wisconsin Italianate architecture in Wisconsin Houses completed in 1861 1861 establishments in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Dane County, Wisconsin Fitchburg, Wisconsin