The Near East Side Historic District is a neighborhood in

Beloit, Wisconsin Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people. History Twelve men in Colebrook, New Hampshire, created the "New England Emigrating Company" in October 1836 and sent ...

composed of stylish homes of prominent citizens from the 1800s and the buildings of

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

. 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 1983. With This district's land is part of the claim of Caleb Blodgett, Beloit's first permanent settler. The 1837 Kelsou Survey and the 1840 Hopkins Survey laid out the streets and lots. Here are some sites that the NRHP nomination considers pivotal, roughly in the order built. These buildings show the same general progression of architectural styles that is found all over southern Wisconsin. * Beloit College Mound Group is a collection of mounds built by Woodland people forty feet above the Rock River, probably between 700 and 1100 A.D. About 23 of 27 mounds remain, including a turtle

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

, linear, and conical mounds. * Middle College at 700 College St was originally a 4-story Greek Revival-styled building designed by a Mr. Ross and built in 1848. It had flat stone lintels and was built from red brick made by Asa Curtis in nearby Turtle township. After a series of upgrades, a 1939 remodeling removed the fourth story and added the grand front

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

and the

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 ...

. The building initially housed classrooms, dormitory, chapel and library, and was called simply "the College." Only after North and South College were added was it called Middle College. * The Rasey house at 517 Prospect St is a 1.5-story house built in 1850 as a fund-raiser for Beloit College – built with donated labor and materials. The style is roughly Greek Revival, seen in the low-pitched roof, the

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

beneath the eaves, and the plain lintels. The walls are clad in small coursed

cobblestones Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...

, with

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

decorating the corners. The college's first president lived in the house for a year before it was sold to Deacon Samuel Hinman. * The Aaron Chapin house at 709 College Ave, a.k.a. the President's House, is a 2-story house designed by

Lucas Bradley Lucas Bradley (1809–1889) was an American architect in Racine, Wisconsin.Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style house and built in 1851. Hallmarks of the style are the symmetry and the low-pitched roof. The house already had some Italianate elements at the start, but in 1871 Chapin added the bay windows and a

. In 1937 Ellen Chapin gave the house to Beloit College and it was remodeled, restoring it to a more Greek Revival look, finally adding the

in the late 1940s. Chapin was the first president of the college, a teacher and writer on economics. * The Jesse McQuigg house at 635 College Ave is a 1.5-story brick home built before 1857, and is considered by some "the best preserved, example of Greek Revival architecture in Beloit." All the classic elements are intact: low-pitched roof, cornice returns, frieze, and simple lintels. Jesse McQuigg owned the house from 1857 to 1886. The house's history before that is unknown. * North College at 608 Emerson St is a 3-story dormitory designed by Lucas Bradley in Greek Revival style and built in 1854, with

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

ed walls of red brick from Asa Curtis's kiln nearby, with a low-pitched

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, ...

. It originally looked somewhat different, but the

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

and the

pedimented Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pediment ...

were added in 1940 to make this building look more like Middle College. It served as a dormitory for men until 1891, then was used as classrooms until 1930, then a dorm for women until the 1950s. After that it housed an infirmary and offices. * The Whitney house (pictured above) at 704 Park Ave is a 2-story frame home built in 1855. Italianate influence shows in the low-pitched

, the massing, and the decorative

lintels 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 ...

above the windows. * The Charles Parker house at 231 Roosevelt is a 2-story frame Italianate-styled house built in 1856 on the bluff above the Rock River, with a low-pitched hip roof, wide eaves supported by paired brackets, and a cupola on top. Parker was a principal of the Parker and Stone Reaper Company, which produced the Appleby Twine Binder. Parker was also a founder of the Beloit Water Company in 1885. * South College, at 700 College Ave, is a 2-story cream brick chapel designed by Lucas Bradley and built around 1858. It is a simplified version of a building Bradley proposed for Racine High School. Initially the first floor housed the Academy and the second the chapel, but since 1889 the building has served various functions. * The Thomas Bailey house at 824 Church St is a 2-story frame house built in 1858 with

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 ...

stylings: the steeply-pitched roof, the tall windows, and the scroll-sawed

bargeboards Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

. The emphasis on vertical in places makes one think of a country church. Bailey was a produce merchant and grain dealer. * The Elijah Kendall house at 818 Church St is a 2-story

Italianate-style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

house built in 1860. It has a low-pitched roof with broad eaves supported by brackets. Elijah Kendall was a carpenter, who lived there with patternmaker Eugene Kendall and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

Hubert Kendall. * Memorial Hall on Beloit College's campus at 615 Prospect Ave was designed by Cochrane and Garnsey of Chicago and built in 1867. The WHS survey considers it "one of the finest extant examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in Beloit." Hallmarks of Gothic Revival style in this building are the point-topped arches, the steep roof surfaces, and the cresting on the ridges. It initially housed mementos from the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. Since then it has housed the college's library, the music department, the natural history collection, and now the

Logan Museum of Anthropology Logan Museum of Anthropology is a museum of Beloit College, located in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1894 by Beloit trustee and patron of the arts Frank Granger Logan and contains about 300,000 archaeological and ethnological ...

. * The Richard Newcomb house at 905 Bushnell St (the NE corner of Horace White Park) is a frame Italianate-style house built in 1869. It has a low-pitched roof supported by paired brackets and framed by symmetric chimneys, a full-width front porch topped with a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

, and tall, symmetric windows with elegant

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s. * The Sereno Merrill house at 703 Park Ave is a large frame

Italian Villa style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

house built in 1869. The form is asymmetric and picturesque, with a 3-story corner tower.

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

flank the front entry. Merrill was the principal of Beloit Seminary until it merged with Beloit College. Then he built a paper mill in Rockton, patented a paper machine, and started the O.E. Merrill Company to make parts for his paper-making machines. In 1873 he helped organize

Eclipse windmill The Eclipse windmill was one of the more successful designs of windmill used to pump water in the nineteenth century United States. It was invented by Leonard Wheeler, a Presbyterian minister who was working among the Ojibwe on the south shore of ...

Company. He also served as president of several banks, alderman, Wisconsin assemblyman, and in other civic roles. * The John Holmes house at 1103–1105 Chapin St is a 1.5-story

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

-style house built in 1875. The

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

is the distinguishing feature of Second Empire style. This roof is shingled with slate. Below the roof, the walls are cream brick, with a rather elaborate frieze and windows heads consistent with the overall style. Holmes was a surveyor, farmer, builder, and trader. He was Secretary and Treasurer of Beloit Savings Bank and held offices in his

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church. * The Anna Pratt house at 726 Church St is a 2.5-story Queen Anne house built in 1890. Typical for the style, it has a complex roof line, a corner turret,

, and careful attention to varied surface textures, with fish-scale shingles on the second story, narrow

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

below, and an interesting waffle pattern in the gable ends of the front porch. * Eaton Chapel at 720 College St was designed by Patton and Fisher and built in 1891 – a

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

-style structure with a large tapered bell tower. Hallmarks of the style are the round-topped openings, the off-center tower producing a picturesque silhouette, and the rusticated stone, though the Richardsonian flavor more commonly limits rusticated stone to lower parts of a structure. * Pearsons Hall of Science at 504 Emerson St is an instructional building of Beloit College, built in 1891–92. It was designed by

Burnham and Root Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root. During their eighteen years of partnership, Burnham and Root designed and ...

of Chicago in

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style. A hallmark of the style in this building is the round-arched tops on many openings. The building marked an expansion of science education at the school, supported partly by a $60,000 grant from Dr. D.K. Pearsons of Chicago.

Roy Chapman Andrews Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He led a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed C ...

and Erastus G. Smith taught in the building. * The Moses Reitler house at 925 Bushnell St is a 3-story house built in 1892, with two gable-roofed wings and a polygonal tower. A conventional Queen Anne/ Eastlake-style porch shelters the front door, but above that are simply-decorated enclosed porches on the second and third story. The house is clad in a variety of shingle patterns. The shingles and tower are Queen Anne-style features, but the simplicity of design draws from Shingle style. Moses Reitler was a German Jew who sold clothing in Beloit. His son Eugene owned the house after him. * The Charles and Della Emerson house at 732 Church St is a 2.5-story Queen Anne-styled house built in 1894, with the typical complex roof, asymmetric front porch, and shingles in the gable ends. Atypical of Queen Anne are the concentric shingle pattern in the gable ends and the small columns supporting the front porch. Charles owned Emerson's Drug Store. * The Paley house at 802 Park Ave is a 2.5-story house built in 1895. With a round corner tower, asymmetric wrap-around porch, bay windows, and shingles in the gable ends, it has many classic features of Queen Anne style. The concentric shingle pattern in the gable ends and the small columns supporting the porch are a bit odd for Queen Anne, but interestingly similar to the Emerson house above. John Paley was president of Beloit State Bank, and his wife and two daughters served as directors and cashiers. * The Noble Ross house at 819 Park Ave is a 2.5-story Queen Anne house built in 1896 with a complex roof, a conical tower and varied windows and bays. Noble Ross was one of the founders of Beloit Iron Works, which made paper-making machines. * The Carnegie Library at 634 College St on the Beloit College Campus was built in 1904, designed by

Patton and Miller Patton & Miller was an architectural firm of Chicago, Illinois. Normand Smith Patton and Grant C. Miller designed over 100 Carnegie libraries nationwide, including Buffalo Township Public Library, built in 1894, and 14 more in Illinois.Schnell ...

of Chicago – the "finest extant example in Beloit of the

Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

" style. Elements of that style in this building are the colossal

Corinthian columns The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...

and

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

and the heavy

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 ...

. The building was started with a gift from

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

's foundation like other Carnegie libraries, this one amounting to $50,000. The building served as Beloit College's library until 1962 – since then as the World Affairs Center and offices. * The William Hamilton house at 805 Church St is a later Queen Anne-style, 2.5 stories and built in 1905. The basic shape of the house is a cube, probably influenced by the

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

style that was becoming popular, but the cube was decorated with a very Queen Anne-ish corner turret and asymmetric wrap-around porch. William Hamilton was a professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and

Registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the sen ...

at Beloit College, and pushed the college toward career-oriented programs. * The G.M. Moss house at 636 Harrison is a 2.5-story house built in 1906, with the first story clad in shingles and the higher ones clad in stucco and ornamental half-timbering. The design draws from

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 ...

and

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style. Moss was the secretary-treasurer of a wholesale grocery business. * The Philhower house at 808 Park Ave is a 2.5-story house built in 1906, with Prairie Style showing in its emphasis on the horizontal – the broad

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

almost suggesting an Oriental

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

. But the striking thing is the flat-topped piers rising from corners and through the roof surfaces. The first owner was grocer E.L. Philower. * The Dr. Daniel Connell house at 816 Wisconsin Ave is a 2-story house built in 1913 with

influence seen in the emphasis on horizontal, the wide eaves, bands of windows, and the

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

with rectangular trim. The tile roof also suggests Japanese architecture related to Prairie Style. The house was built for a Mrs. R. Watrous, then bought by surgeon Dr. Connell and his wife four years later. * The Dazey house at 746 Park Ave is a 2-story house built in 1922. It mixes Craftsman style (exposed rafter tails and tapered columns alongside the door) with Prairie Style (emphasis on horizontal, rectangular subdivision, and bands of windows). C.A. Dazey, a local realtor and developer, built this house first in his Dazey's Subdivision.

References

{{reflist Geography of Rock County, Wisconsin Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Rock County, Wisconsin