704 East Gorham Street
Madison, WI, USA

William Collins House (Madison, Wisconsin)

The William Collins House is a Prairie style home built about 1911 above Lake Mendota, a half mile north of the capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1974 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a locally significant fine example of Claude and Starck's residential work in the Prairie style.


History

In the early 1900s as the logging boom in Wisconsin was winding down, William Collins and his brother Cornelius ran a business manufacturing and wholesaling wood products - Collins Bros.

In 1908 Cornelius and his wife Anna had the local architectural firm of Louis Claude and Edward Starck design them a home overlooking Lake Mendota, which still stands at 646 E. Gorham, across Blount Street from the house that is the subject of this article. Cornelius' house is 2.5-stories, with brick walls and a steeply pitched roof typical of Tudor Revival style. But it also sports a band of six windows across the front, characteristic of Prairie Style.

Three years later, brother William and his wife Dora had the same firm design for them the large home pictured. Where Cornelius's house had been more vertical and British, mixing some Prairie Style elements with Tudor Revival forms, William's house was more relaxed, pushing Prairie style in the direction of a bungalow and a Swiss chalet. Elements of Prairie style are the broad eaves, the horizontal emphasis in the front, and the small bands of windows. The false half-timbering in the dormer end is a Tudor element. The gable-roofed dormer and the balconies recall a chalet. Walls are dark brick. The roof was probably first covered with wood shingles or tile. A balcony hangs on each end of the house, with the one to the southwest supported by decorative brackets along the lines of those Louis Sullivan designed for the Harold Bradley house a few years before. Inside is oak woodwork and windows with leaded glass borders, typical of Prairie Style.

After the two brothers split their lumber business into two, Cornelius' daughter Irene and her husband Robert Connor worked in Cornelius' C.C. Collins Lumber Co. In 1920 they built a home next to Cornelius' house, at 640 E. Gorham. It is also dark brick, but in the Colonial Revival style that became more popular as Prairie Style faded. This pattern of a family building homes close together was more common in the past, when travel was more difficult and fewer existing homes were available to buy.

William's house was later used by the City of Madison as the offices for the Parks Department. In 1975 it was designated a landmark by the Madison Landmarks Commission. Since 2013, the house has been operated by Bob Klebba and David Waugh as the Mendota Lake House B&B.

When William's house was added to the NRHP in 1974, architect Gordon Orr stated its significance thus:

The William Collins house is a fine example of Claude and Starck's residential work in the Prairie style and possess[es] architectural merit at a local level. Many of the homes designed by this firm still exist, and this building so well shows their full grasp of the compact-cubical form executed in the Chicago area by George W. Maher.... Yet, this building has features strongly its own.

National Register of Historic Places - William Collins House (Madison, Wisconsin)

Statement of Significance:

The William Collins house is a fine example of Claude and Starck's residential work in the Prairie style and possess architectural merit at a local level. Many of the homes designed by this firm still exist, and this building so well shows their full grasp of the compact-cubical form executed in the Chicago area by George W. Maher, and widely published in the journals of the region C Western Architect and Inland Architect and News Record). Yet, this building has featured strongly its own.

The bracketed porches and railings of the building lessen the severity of the very pure geometric forms and indicate a sympathy for a feeling of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The firm of Claude (Louis W.) and Starck C Edward F.) is an important one in the history of Madison's architectural development during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Both men obtained some of their experience in offices of architects associated with the Prairie School; Claude with Louis H. Sullivan and Starck with Handy and Cady. This experience, undoubtedly contributed to the very high level of design that was seen in their buildings reflecting their interest in Prairie architecture. Claude and Starck's practice were a broad one encompassing all types of structures and extended beyond Madison to a large part of Wisconsin. Their popular libraries were also found in some neighboring states.

The Collins house is pretentious enough that a feeling for the owner's prosperity is present. It is not a small house, and it possesses fine details, such as wood trim set in the plaster, finely leaded glass designs in the windows, a quality of masonry for the entire exterior and a carefully studied amount of wood detailing in the brackets, balconies and railings, all lending a certain amount of grace to an otherwise simple form.

Mr. William Collins was a lumber company executive. The house was built about 1911 and has undergone a succession of owners. It is now used by the City of Madison as the offices for the Parks Department, a use which should be encouraged.