606 2nd Avenue
Eau Claire, WI, USA

Steven House

The Steven House is located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.


History

The house was built for J. D. R. Steven and his wife. It was built in 1909 and designated a historic building by the City of Eau Claire Landmark Commission in 1976.

National Register of Historic Places - Steven House

Statement of Significance:

Designed in the formative years of the partnership of William Gray Purcell (1880-1965) and George Feick, Jr. (1881-1945), the J. D. R. Steven Home figures significantly in the dissemination of the Prairie School Style. Associating shortly after Purcell's term of employment in the office of Louis Sullivan, together Purcell and Feick launched the reputation of one of the Midwest's leading twentieth-century firms. In the same year that the Steven House was designed, George Elmslie (1871-1952) joined the partnership which was to grow even larger than that of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Steven House was cited by Prairie School scholar H. Alien Brooks for the "seminal importance" of the plan, which was to be used in later commissions. The cruciform arrangement of living spaces around a free-standing fireplace allowed an open flow of interior spaces without loss of the separation of functions. The simplicity of both exterior and interior design, based on the contrast of cream-colored surfaces with warmer red brick, birch, poplar, oak, and maple, makes the house a classic in residential design as well as in historical style.

Original owner J. D. R. Steven (1872-1951) was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and became an Eau Claire resident at the age of seventeen when he moved to the city with his mother and sister, after working for some years in a management position in the area's lumbering industry and organizing the Steven & Jarvis Lumbering Company in 1907, he eventually rose to presidency and principal ownership of the Eau Claire Book & Stationery Company. To his additional credit was membership in several fraternal and charitable organizations in the city. Following her husband's death, Mrs. J. D. R. Steven retained ownership of the house until 1977, when it passed into the hands of the present owners. The home was designated an Eau Claire City Landmark in 1976.