The Ole K. Roe House is a large Queen Anne-styled house built in 1892 in

Stoughton, Wisconsin Stoughton is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. It straddles the Yahara River about 20 miles southeast of the state capital, Madison. Stoughton is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the populati ...

for one of the city's leading

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 ...

merchants and a civic leader. In 1884 the house was listed on 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

Ole K. Roe Ole K. Roe (August 24, 1851 – August 26, 1912) was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Biography Roe was born to Norwegian immigrants on August 24, 1851, in Pleasant Springs, Wisconsin. On December 26, 1875, he married Toline "Lena" Fella ...

was born in 1851 in the town Pleasant Springs, where his parents were the first White settlers. Ole farmed there and dealt in tobacco until 1888, when he moved to Stoughton and went full time into tobacco trading. Over the years he owned three different tobacco warehouses in Stoughton and was one of the prominent dealers in the city, which was one of the centers of tobacco production in the state. In 1890 Ole was elected alderman, in 1896 mayor of Stoughton, and in 1900 a

state legislator A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Stat ...

. With In 1889, a year after moving to Stoughton, Ole bought the lot on which the house stands. He had the prior residence moved, and in 1891 commenced to build what was called by ''The Stoughton Hub'' "one of the finest residences in the city." The house is 2.5 stories, with a square corner tower. The walls are brick - the only remaining brick Queen Anne house in Stoughton. They are cream brick, accented with red brick and cut red sandstone. The elaborate tower is topped with a bell cast dome. Many of the windows have rounded tops; some have colored panes, and two have shell motifs and glass jewels. The east porch is the original spindle woodwork design. The two-story

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 ...

porch on the north is from 1912 to 1926, replacing an earlier porch similar to that on the east. Inside are two marble fireplaces, pocket doors,

inglenook An inglenook or chimney corner is a recess that adjoins a fireplace. The word comes from "ingle", an old Scots word for a domestic fire (derived from the Gaelic ''aingeal''), and "nook". The inglenook originated as a partially enclosed heart ...

s, and many door and window moldings are decorated with a tobacco-leaf motif. In 1905, Ole had a stroke while returning on the train from a business trip to Rice Lake. He died in 1912. His son Carl and his family moved into the house with Roe's wife and the house stayed in the family until the late 1930s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roe Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Dane County, Wisconsin Houses in Dane County, Wisconsin Queen Anne architecture in Wisconsin Brick buildings and structures in Wisconsin Houses completed in 1892