Southwest Side Walking Tour

 “Note: The following ‘online tour’ has been adapted from The Southwest Side Historic District: A Walking Tour, a booklet produced by Landscape Research, Ltd. for the Commission in 1999.

Stoughton is often called a New England village, and in many respects it resembles one.  Situated on high rolling ground, at the bend of the Catfish, or Yahara River, it truly has a beautiful site.
                   Madison, Dane County and Surrounding Towns, Being a History and Guide, 1877.

With its stylish buildings arranged above Main Street and the Yahara River, a neighborhood of over one hundred houses provides a view of Stoughton’s building traditions since the late 1850s.  Today, this approximately twenty block area between South Monroe, South Page, Oak and Main streets is testament to the city’s past building traditions as well as the present interest in neighborhood conservation.  In 1996, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Southwest Side Historic District.

Situated on south bank of the Yahara, this area was among the first to be developed after Luke Stoughton laid out the town in 1847.  Seeing the potential of what was then called the Catfish River for a dam and sawmill, he platted the original town around a dam site and built a sawmill and gristmill. The town’s early business district soon gathered along Main Street.

In 1853, the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad reached Stoughton from Milwaukee with freight and passenger service. Served by rail and enjoying a good location as a small milling town and agricultural trade center, Stoughton’s population grew steadily. In 1855, Luke Stoughton made an addition to the original town plat on the south side of the river; it included a site for his own house.

The next year, Stoughton built his new cream brick residence at 516 S. Page Street. The site originally included all of Block 6, and Stoughton and his family enjoyed a fine view of the river.  He helped to organize the First Universalist Church; in 1858 the church building was erected at 324 S. Page Street. The building is now the Stoughton Historical Society and remains a neighborhood landmark.

At first, Stoughton was primarily a small agricultural trade center with a population made up of many New Englanders.  Norwegian immigrants were drawn here after the Civil War, particularly by the development of the wagon industry. The leading wagon manufacturer was founded by Norwegian-born T.G. Mandt. By the early 1880s, the firm employed over two hundred.

By 1905, when the town’s population reached 4,200, the Norwegian language and culture were evident everywhere. Stoughton’s Main Street flourished in the late nineteenth century with fine new business blocks, and the great variety of shops and customers reflected the general success of the city’s manufacturing firms.

Tobacco distribution was second to wagon manufacturing in this period, with twelve warehouses in operation by 1905.  By this time Stoughton also enjoyed a modern water and electric lighting system, a hospital, and a high school.

The southwest side housed some of the Norwegian immigrants and their families, including prominent businessmen and professionals.  Over one-third of the houses in the Southwest Side Historic District were constructed between 1880 and 1890, especially along W. South Street.  Another boom occurred between 1890 and 1910, when Norwegian-born builder John j. Holmstad and other builders erected many handsome frame houses of the type seen on the 300 through 600 blocks of Oak Street. Little new construction has occurred since 1910.  By the 1950s, some of the largest houses were divided into apartments.  However, in recent years many have been converted back to single-family residences, and their original architectural features refurbished. The National Register Nomination for the Southwest Side Historic District noted that “Today, due to the high level of maintenance and care in the area, the district has “retained its historic character, because most of the houses ... still feature historic details, siding materials, and openings.  The result is a historic neighborhood that still is one of the most prestigious in the community.”

Architectural Highlights

There are fine examples of the Queen Anne Style in the district, many of them spacious houses originally designed for single-family occupancy. However, there are a number of simple, vernacular Greek Revival houses from the 1860s and 1870s, and good examples of the more ornate Italianate Style, popular here between about 1860 and 1880. Most of these houses were clapboard-covered, and were decorated with a variety of sawn trim. Early twentieth-century Classical Revival Style houses, such as those built by John J. Holmstad, are identifiable by their boxy proportions, and porch details such as classical columns.

400 Garfield St.
West Elementary School
1886; 1899, 1906 additions

The West School was Stoughton’s first primary school.  Classes were held here until 1982, and the building was converted to apartments in 1988.  Despite two additions, the exterior remains much the same as when it was constructed. The tall, round-and segmental-arched window openings are distinctive features of the design.  On the east side, the windows cover the entire wall. The adaptive use of this building has resulted in the conservation of historic architectural features as well as the preservation of the building’s long history in the neighborhood.

The original building consisted of three rooms completed in 1886.  In 1897, a one room addition was completed. Another addition was made in 1906.  By this time, Stoughton’s population was over 4,200 and the West School was one of four graded elementary schools in the city.

At least eight houses in the Southwest Side Historic District are attributed to builder John J. Holmstad, and he likely built more.  The earliest identified, the Holmstad-Olson House at 417 W. South Street, dates from 1884. Holmstad’s house-building and contracting career in Stoughton spanned over thirty years. He included oval openings, Palladian windows, projecting bays, and oriels in his turn-of-the century designs. Most of the houses have large porches, some with wrap around verandas.  Holmstad apparently lived in some of the houses before selling them to others.

Holmstad was born in Norway in 1857. He arrived in Stoughton in 1897, and apprenticed with A.E. Ovren (see 401 W. South Street).  After starting his own contracting business, Holmstad eventually employed fifteen men.  According to the History of Dane County (1906), “Many of the handsomest homes in Stoughton stand as evidence of his skill and reliability.”

Holmstad married Katrina Pederson, of Christiania, Norway, in 1886.