620 South Ingersoll Street
Madison, WI, USA

George A. Lougee House

The George A. Lougee House is a historic house located at 620 South Ingersoll Street in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. The house was built in 1907 for hotel proprietor George A. Lougee. Architects Claude and Starck, a prominent local firm with ties to Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the Prairie School home. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.


History and architecture

George A. Lougee was born in New Hampshire in 1850. By 1875, he had entered the hospitality business, operating the Pennsylvania Railroad's first dining car. Lougee ran Madison's Park Hotel from 1891 until 1911; while his house was built in 1907, relatively late in his tenure at the hotel, he lived in Madison until his death in 1932. Lougee also managed the Palmer House in Chicago, the New Kimball Hotel in Atlanta, and the University Club in Madison.

Lougee hired the prominent Madison architectural firm of Louis W. Claude and Edward F. Starck to design his home. The two architects were partners from 1896 until 1929 and designed both residences and public buildings across Wisconsin and its neighboring states. Claude was a friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Wright's Prairie School designs influenced the firm's residential work. The Lougee House, which is similar to Wright's B. Harley Bradley House in Kankakee, Illinois, is one of the firm's most highly regarded home designs.

The two-story house has a stucco exterior, as was common for Prairie School homes, and a gable roof. A cross gable extends forward from the east side of the house, and an attached porch extends along the home's south side. The entrance, located next to the cross gable, features floral-patterned leaded glass windows. Horizontal wooden bands above and below the windows on both floors and a terrace wall along the east side give the house a horizontal emphasis, a key element of Prairie School architecture.

The house was designated a landmark by the Madison Landmarks Commission in 1977. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 7, 1978. Additionally, it is located within the Orton Park Historic District.

National Register of Historic Places - George A. Lougee House

Statement of Significance:

The George A. Lougee house embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Prairie School style of architecture and represents the work of a locally significant architect, the firm of Claude and Starck of Madison. Louis W. Claude (1868-1951) was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, was educated in the local public schools, and attended the University of Wisconsin as a special civil engineering student under the tutelage of Allan D. Conover, for whom he worked while a student. He left in 1891 for experience in the Chicago offices of Adler and Sullivan, D. H. Burnham and Company, and Schlacks and Otten Heimer. Claude returned to Madison, accepted a short-term appointment on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin and established his own architectural practice about 1894. Edward F. Starck (1868-1947) was born in Milwaukee, moved to Madison and graduated from high school there. He obtained his experience in the offices of Edward Townsend Mix in Milwaukee, Handy and Cady of Chicago, and D. R. Jones in Madison. He joined Louis W. Claude in an architectural partnership about 1896 which lasted until 1929.

During the period of their practice, Claude and Starck designed many public libraries throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and the State of Washington, many banks and public schools in Wisconsin plus many residences and commercial structures. Their work in public libraries has received attention and several, including those in Tomah, Wisconsin; Rochelle, Illinois; Merrill, Wisconsin; and Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. While the firm did not exclusively practice in Prairie School design, Louis W. Claude's writing does indicate a preference for original concepts in architecture. They, nevertheless, have a substantial representation of buildings in other forms.

A personal relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis W. Claude existed well into the later years of Claude's life and it is conceivable that his admiration for Wright, which he admitted, prompted several designs in a Wrightian mode. Certainly, the George A. Lougee house bears a resemblance to Wright f s work, namely, the Harley Bradley house in Kankakee, Illinois, of 1900 which is similar in the exterior massing of gabled wings and terraces and the use of stucco accented by horizontal courses of wood. Although modified on the interior, the exterior of the Lougee house is still a handsome example of the Prairie School of architecture, and it ranks perhaps among the best of Claude and Starck 1 s residential work.

George A. Lougee was born in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1850 and died in Madison in 1932. Lougee had a distinguished career in hotel management and ownership. In 1875 he managed the first dining car on the Pennsylvania Railroad running from New York to Chicago. From 1891 to 1911 he operated the Park Hotel in Madison while maintaining the operations of the New Kimball Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. After his retirement from the Park Hotel, he also managed the Palmer House in Chicago, as well as the University Club in Madison.