*
>> These are some of Wisconsin's
most magnificent homes.
>> When you walk into this home,
you know right away,
it's a family of status.
>> Built in the 19th and
early 20th centuries,
these houses continue to inspire
our modern imagination.
>> He felt that he could build
an American architecture
here in the prairies
of the Midwest.
>> But who built them?
And why are they still here
after so many generations?
I'm Michael Bridgeman,
and I've been fascinated by
architecture my entire life.
Over the next hour, I'll tour
six of these grand homes
from all across our state.
They have their own
unique designs,
and each of them holds
an incredible story.
>> He brought a mindset
to this house that
was really revolutionary.
>> These are people of great
privilege, and they don't
want to "rough it."
>> This is one of the most
beautiful places I've ever seen.
>> Join me on a journey
through the
Remarkable Homes of Wisconsin.
>> Remarkable Homes of Wisconsin
is funded in part by
the Jeffris Family Foundation
of Janesville, Wisconsin.
Dedicated to Midwestern
Historic Preservation
and Friends of
Wisconsin Public Television.
*
>> Wadsworth Hall is a mansion
on the shores of Geneva Lake
in southeastern Wisconsin.
The home has been restored to
its greatness of a century ago.
The massive restoration project,
completed just before
the new millennium, was led by
architect, John Nelson.
>> It was a very intense
construction period.
I mean, there were times
when there were over
a hundred workers on the site.
>> The home was originally
constructed in 1905,
at a time when a number of
the region's high society
were building country estates
in Lake Geneva.
Most of these movers and shakers
were from Chicago.
They came to the lakes
of Southern Wisconsin
to enjoy their beauty,
to maintain social status,
and to get away from a city
going through unprecedented
change.
*
Chicago was America's
fastest-growing city
in the 19th century.
In 1850, its population was
below thirty thousand people.
In just 50 years, that number
was fast approaching
twomillion.
And living in cities
at this time
could be downright unpleasant.
>> The streets were filled
with horse manure.
There was soot and smoke
in the air.
Cities were swept by disease
like cholera, typhoid.
Cities were regarded as places
that were not healthful.
>> Lake Geneva offered
a striking contrast
to life in Chicago,
enticing some of its wealthiest
people to vacation there
in the summer.
The earliest would come
because of a catastrophe.
[distant screams]
>> The Great Fire of Chicago
began on Sunday, October 8,
in 1871.
By the time it was extinguished
two days later, it had claimed
at least three hundred lives and
destroyed the heart of the city.
>> The wealthy don't want to
live among the ruins of Chicago
while it's being rebuilt.
So they temporarily take
residence up in Lake Geneva,
and they establish this
tradition of living in these
grand estates that surround
the lake.
Norman Harris is just one of
a long line of Chicago people
who make it a vacation
destination.
>> Chicago investor
and philanthropist,
Norman Wait Harris,
made his fortune in insurance
and banking.
Harris hired a renowned Boston
architecture firm to design his
getaway home in Lake Geneva.
And it had to be prestigious,
something worthy
of Harris's stature.
>> There's a long tradition,
really, of architecture being
used to express status.
And so what we see in Wisconsin
in a lot of these buildings
in the late 19th and
early 20th century
are the desire on the part of
its wealthiest citizens
to express power.
And it was on the architecture
itself, on the exterior
of these buildings
as well as on the interiors.
They wanted to show that they
were keeping up with
the Joneses, so to speak.
>> Harris named his home
Wadsworth Hall
to honor his mother's family
and his New England roots.
And Harris chose a style
for this retreat
that suited his self-image.
>> It's a terrific example
of what you'd call
Colonial Revival Period
architecture.
>> It's an architecture
of American patriotism.
The architectural vocabulary
is drawn from American
revolutionary culture.
And the owners of Wadsworth Hall
are saying, we are Americans.
Our success has come from
the success of America itself.
So we picked an architectural
style that's expressive of
the growth and success
of American culture.
>> Wadsworth Hall has
a noble colonial style
on its exterior.
But things change
on the inside of the home.
*
>> Here all the rooms
are slightly different.
They're not totally out of place
in a Colonial building.
They feel like they belong in
there, but they're not strictly
period architecture.
>> For Norman Harris and his
contemporaries in Lake Geneva,
using different styles
was a conscious choice.
A good example of this
is the library.
>> The style of the library
is much more classical.
He's saying something about
himself as a learned, educated
person that he couldn't say
using the architectural style
of house itself.
>> In a Colonial building
you wouldn't have
a coved ceiling such as we do
in the room that we're
sitting in right now.
>> That room is the great room,
the heart of Wadsworth Hall.
It's punctuated by a magnificent
staircase and chandelier.
And it leads out to the terrace
and Geneva Lake.
>> If, as in many cases
in the old days,
you arrived by boat,
you would have actually come in
through the doors behind me,
rather than through
the motor court in front.
So this would be your
introduction to the house.
>> One of the great room's
primary purposes
was to entertain
large groups of people.
And by the turn of the century,
Lake Geneva had a vibrant
Chicago party scene
during the summers.
These extravagant affairs
were serious business.
>> Partying was definitely
part of that culture.
So if you didn't have a party,
you weren't among the people
who were the status people,
the image seekers.
>> At Wadsworth Hall,
simply walking from the interior
to the outdoors
has a magical feeling to it.
For example, the sun room,
with its lovely view
of the lake to the south,
has a surprise in store
for those who venture outside.
A semi-circular portico
creates a graceful transition
from the house to the outdoors.
And then this allée
of beech trees draws the eye
further into the landscape.
*
The original landscaping was
done by the Olmstead brothers.
They were the sons of
Frederick Law Olmstead,
America's most famous
landscape architect.
Much of the Olmstead brothers'
framework has been preserved.
>> Now it's been altered
over the years,
but there's enough of
the basic intent there that is
really a landmark landscape
as well as an architectural
landmark.
>> To explore the grounds
of Wadsworth Hall,
is to be rewarded.
For example,
there's a children's play area.
It includes bite-sized buildings
and is hedged by a charming
topiary sculpture.
This village was added
as part of the restoration
done at Wadsworth Hall in 1999.
The restoration was completed
for home-owner
Richard H. Driehaus,
a Chicago businessman
and philanthropist.
When Richard Driehaus
bought the house,
the dining room ceiling
was sagging badly.
The architects devised
a careful plan to secure it
from above, and slowly pull
the elaborate plasterwork
back into place.
*
>> It had, over the years
slipped, and miraculously
didn't start cracking
or falling apart.
Most of the plasterwork in there
is the original, and once
we got it secured again,
it only took a coat of paint
to bring it back.
>> Today, the home is in
exquisite condition,
a testament to its masterful
renovation.
Wadsworth Hall holds
a special place among
Wisconsin's remarkable homes.
>> It's really a house that
reflects the trends at the time
of the upper class;
the way they lived,
the business history,
the social history,
the cultural history.
For all of those reasons,
the house should be preserved.
*
>> This home in Neenah
was a very personal project
for Havilah Babcock.
He was one of the founders of
the Kimberly-Clark Corporation
and built his fashionable house
on East Wisconsin Avenue.
Havilah Babcock supervised
every aspect of construction
that went into
his family's home.
>> My great-grandfather
built this,
and it was a labor of love.
I mean, this was a whole focus
of his private life.
>> Because the home
has remained with the family
to this day,
it is unique.
It's story revolves around
a man who built success
from humble beginnings,
and constructed his house
as a form of self-expression.
*
Havilah Babcock's
fascination with building
began when he was a boy.
He worked with his father
on the Neenah lock.
Then in his teens, Babcock got
a job at a dry goods store
and advanced quickly.
>> He grew to be quite tall
and good-looking,
and dry goods was all about
selling dress fabrics to women.
And he could sell them
all kinds of stuff
on that principle of having
good-looking clerks serve women
in dress goods.
>> Within a few short years,
Babcock and his friend,
Alfred Kimberly, started
their own dry goods store.
A local newspaper attested
that young Havilah was
"a great favorite with the
ladies" and went on to predict
that women would not fail to
shop at his newly-opened store.
Babcock was just 19 years old.
Havilah Babcock
and Alfred Kimberly
were ambitious entrepreneurs.
They partnered with
F.C. Shattuck and C.B. Clark
in 1872, forming what would
become one of the largest
paper companies in the world.
Kimberly Clark and Company
would make Babcock
a wealthy man.
But at a price.
>> He and Alfred Kimberly,
his partner,
had to sell the store,
which was Havilah's great joy.
I mean, it was the thing
he really liked doing
and did very well at.
>> But it didn't take
Babcock long to find
a new way to channel
his artistic energy.
He set out to build his family
a grand home.
And because of his background
in construction and fashion,
Babcock was perfectly
suited for the task.
He hired prominent Oshkosh
architect, William Waters,
who drew up a Queen Anne style
house.
The family moved into their
new home in 1883.
But it would take Babcock
several more years
to complete the interior
to satisfy his taste and style
and to tell his story.
>> Architecture in
the 19th century
was seen as didactic.
It was a learning tool.
In the Babcock house,
they're using certain motifs
to say something about
what they valued
and what they believed
and what their culture
was all about.
>> Victorian America emphasized
the virtues of family life.
And the home,
more than anyplace else,
is where character was formed.
Havilah Babcock integrated
moral lessons into
the fabric of his new house.
*
Storytelling imagery abounds
throughout the home.
Socrates, Dante and Lord Byron
argue their philosophies
in the library.
In the front hall,
the perils of unbridled lust
are cautioned through depictions
of Lancelot and Guinevere.
And, with a hint of
self-deprecation,
Havilah Babcock also
shared stories about himself.
>> At the vestibule doors
in the front hall,
you have a peacock
and a pheasant.
The peacock and the pheasant
are both birds where the male
is more ornamental
than the female.
And, this is kind of
a reflection of his character.
In the transom over these doors,
is a parakeet.
The parakeet is a bird in which
the sex is identified by
the male's ability to sing
which the female does not.
And Havilah was a tenor
in the church choir and
a semi-professional singer.
He's telling you a little bit
about himself, and it's really
rather intriguing.
>> Havilah included a tribute
to his wife, Frances.
The goddess Pomona overlooking
the front hall stairs
bears something of a resemblance
to Mrs. Babcock.
Life in the late 1800s
in a high-status home like
Havilah Babcock's was strictly
regimented by the different
zones of the house.
*
>> These are perceived as being
these very large houses.
And they are, but the lives were
not spreading out wide and far.
They were rely very much
circumscribed
into smaller areas.
>> The Victorian house
was indeed a highly organized,
contrived space.
There were male spaces of
the house like the library,
which was where
the man of the house could read,
but was also a space
where he could showcase
his worldly knowledge.
Whereas women essentially had
a sitting room, perhaps,
where they would entertain.
*
>> There was one room, however,
that the entire Babcock family
certainly shared together.
>> The dining room was really,
for them,
the center of family life.
The ritual of dining was huge.
Meals were served in courses,
it was the best china,
crystal, tablecloths.
And so it was this very elegant,
very stately type of experience.
>> The Havilah Babcock House
was built during a time
of rapid technological
advancement.
It was the first home in Neenah
to be wired for electricity.
But with a boiler used for
heating, why did it have
so many of these?
This was a modern home.
It was warmed with central heat,
yet fireplaces appear
in every room.
A practical backup system
to be sure.
But also a tangible reminder
of the family hearth.
The fireplaces in Babcock's home
were decorative
and most of them
were never used.
>> It was one of those things
that were put in because
it just made you feel
more comfortable.
There were ducts built in
the walls to take the heat up
to the second floor,
so that when it came to
converting to forced air
it was very easy for us.
We thank him for that.
>> Havilah Babcock's
great-grandson, Peter Adams,
now lives in this home
with his wife, Patricia Mulvey.
It has remained in the family
more than a century
after Havilah's death
and is remarkably unchanged,
thanks to two of his daughters.
>> After Havilah died,
his wife stayed on
and ultimately it was just
Helen and Elizabeth,
the oldest and the youngest,
who made this their home.
They were terrified of changing
anything that Father did
because it was all-important
to him, it was an embodiment
of him.
And we just ended up
doing the same.
>> And this is why
Havilah Babcock's house
remains so true to its past.
His descendants simply
did not make changes.
So the extra-long couch
in which tall Havilah took naps
still beckons in its spot.
The unique tufted dado in
the parlor remains intact.
And the ornate library ceiling
continues to attest to
Havilah Babcock's design
sensibility.
All as it was
some 125 years ago.
An incredible family treasure,
and something of an inspiration.
>> Throughout Wisconsin,
throughout the U.S.
for that matter,
there are people who, every day,
lose beloved family homes.
They don't know what to do.
They don't think it's possible.
The reality is you can do it.
And you don't necessarily have
to have a pile of money, because
this didn't come with any money.
This was just the house.
You just have to develop a plan.
We've been here
forty-some years,
so we've made it work.
It has not been easy.
It's been a lot of hard work.
>> Today Babcock's house
gives us an authentic glimpse
into the world of
wealthy Victorians in Wisconsin.
And the home remains
a captivating expression of
the colorful, handsome man
named Havilah Babcock.
*
On an island
in the Mississippi River
at Prairie du Chien,
sits a Wisconsin gem.
It's called Villa Louis.
Open to the public, it's now
a museum run by the Wisconsin
Historical Society.
>> Villa Louis is one of
the premier historic house
museums in the country.
Nearly 90 percent of
the collection is original to
the family and to the household
here in Prairie du Chien.
>> That means much of what's
inside thishouse is well over
one hundred years old.
And the story of the family
who built Villa Louis
is as dramatic
as the setting itself.
*
>> Hercules Dousman came to
Prairie du Chien in 1826
to work for
the American Fur Company.
But the fur trade was
just a few years away from
a total collapse.
>> Hercules is one of
the lucky ones.
He's able to take money he made
off of the fur trade
and reinvested,
mainly in land speculation.
>> Land investments
made Hercules Dousman one of
Wisconsin's wealthiest men.
He built a grand home whose
entrance led up from
the Mississippi River.
Built on high ground,
Hercules named it
the Brick House on the Mound.
>> He lives in the home here
with his wife Jane until
he dies in September of 1868.
At the time of his death,
it leaves his widow Jane and
the one son that they had
who's always referred to
as Louis.
And Louis then decides
that this first home that
he's living in with his mother
isn't modern enough.
*
>> Hercules' son, Louis Dousman,
was just 20 years old.
But he was wealthy, ambitious,
and wanted a new home
fitting of his station.
So he sought out the most
prestigious architect
money could buy.
>> Edward Townsend Mix was
the most prominent architect
in the state of Wisconsin.
He was the status architect.
And people were hiring him
because they knew that they'd
get something worthy of their
place in the world.
>> Less than 30 years
after its construction,
the spectacular
Brick House on the Mound
was torn down.
Louis built his new home
on the same spot.
But it was mostly his mother,
Jane, who resided there.
Louis' ambitions led him away
from the state.
By the time he returned to
his Prairie du Chien mansion,
he had a beautiful wife, Nina,
and five children.
And Louis and Nina Dousman
were about to launch
an extraordinary plan.
Villa Louis is a prime example
of an elegant Victorian home.
In the latter half of
the 19th century,
interiors for wealthy families
like the Dousmans
were marked by highly ornamental
wall and floor coverings,
objects and art
on prominent display,
and rich colors.
But you had to be careful
where you stepped.
In the 1880s,
Harper's Bazaar magazine
acknowledged that the latest
taste could be...
"...a little overcrowded,
scarcely giving rest enough
to the eye or mind..."
But went on to add, "It is
crowded only with beauty."
*
>> When you tour the home today,
you see these beautiful
blues and reds and golds.
And they flow throughout
the house in all the textiles
and prints and furniture and
Mrs. Dousman had upholstered.
*
>> Villa Louis is filled with
colorful ornamentation
everywhere you look.
Today, it's preserved to its
Victorian grandeur in the 1880s.
And the catalyst for
the striking style of this home
came from an unlikely source.
[horse whinnies]
*
In 1883, Louis undertook
a bold and exciting new venture,
a stock farm for breeding
and racing trotting horses.
Knowing she'd be entertaining
an influx of eager
horse investors,
Mrs. Dousman felt it was time
for an upgrade.
>> She wants to add her own
sense of style and flair
to this house and they start
this remodeling process
in this real British
Arts and Crafts style.
>> Arts and crafts was about
embracing the values of
hand crafted goods
while understanding that
machines produced goods.
So rather than to make it
look machine-like,
they tried to make it look
craftsman-like.
And that's the aesthetic
that the Dousmans are borrowing
when they redesign their house.
>> But Louis Dousman did not
get much time to enjoy
his home's transformation.
Just a couple of years later,
he became ill.
>> They're not sure what's
wrong with him.
He's complaining of these pains.
He dies from appendicitis.
Louis's only 37 years old,
and that left his wife, Nina,
a widow at 33 with five young
children.
>> In the Victorian age,
Mrs. Dousman's options
were limited.
It was considered improper
for a woman to speak about
the racing and breeding
of animals,
so she had to sell off the stock
and close out Louis' farm.
And she was expected to mourn
her husband's death
for two and a half years.
>> There was tremendous pressure
on women in Victorian America.
Those expectations were
socially in place.
They were also codified in
the extensive advice literature
about what women
were supposed to do.
And these were enumerated.
There were roles
that were listed one by one
in those books
about expectations.
>> After an unsuccessful
second marriage,
Mrs. Dousman refocused her
attention on her children.
>> Her oldest daughter is 19,
her second oldest daughter
is 18.
It's now time to find
prospective husbands.
She's doing it
as a single woman.
And in society
she's a wealthy woman.
She's considered
a beautiful woman.
And that's a challenge to others
when it comes to entertaining.
Who wants this wealthy,
single woman sitting
next to your husband
at a dinner party?
>> Nina now called the estate
Villa Louis in tribute to
her late husband.
And by the summer of 1894,
her children were enjoying
a vibrant social life of parties
held at the home.
But these happy times
would not last long.
>> Mrs. Dousman's middle child,
Nina Sturgis Dousman, was
getting ready for a house party.
She was curling her hair,
as girls do,
and the curling iron was like
ours of today, but had to be
heated up over a heat source.
>> Kerosene lamps were
a common fixture in homes
in the late 1880s.
But they had one major flaw,
when conditions were just right,
the whole lamp could explode.
*
An explosion did occur.
And by the time her mother
extinguished the blaze
with a quilt,
14 year-old Nina Dousman
was horribly burned.
>> She was cared for
for six weeks at the house
and infection set in.
They weren't quite sure how to
treat burns like this back then.
She dies on September 14th,
1894.
The family closes up the house
and they go up to St. Paul
for the winter.
And that's something that
Mrs. Dousman continues
to do every year,
not celebrating Christmas
here in Prairie du Chien.
>> But the Dousman family
continued to return to
Villa Louis every summer.
Mrs. Dousman loved entertaining,
and the home was
a perfect setting for parties.
Its striking glass veranda
provided an excellent spot
for indoor fun.
>> It's an extended space
where they can sit and enjoy
themselves in the evening hours,
but be protected from
the Mississippi mosquitoes.
They played card games.
At one point,
there's a pump organ out there.
>> The veranda was an ideal
focal point for house parties.
And the Dousman women were
having as much fun
as their male counterparts.
>> They just weren't having
teas and sitting straight
in the parlor.
They were golfing,
they were playing archery,
they were shooting guns.
>> Summer parties at
Villa Louis were not
one-day affairs.
Many friends were staying
at the home and nearby hotels
for weeks at a time,
possibly at the peril
of their waistlines.
>> Mrs. Dousman loved to dine.
She loved to dine elegantly.
And you get a sense of that when
you see the dining room table.
>> One particular guest gave
compelling testament
to the bountiful food
at Villa Louis.
>> Frederick Bigalow,
his name shows up
in the guest book quite often.
And one passage that he writes
talks about how he gained "seven
pounds, three quarters net"
during one week's house party.
>> Mrs. Dousman's plan for her
daughters was right on course.
With no expense spared,
these summer-long parties
were attracting plenty
of eligible bachelors.
There was only one problem,
Nina Dousman
was running out of cash.
>> The wealth is lagging.
And with the depression in 1893
we start to see the coffers are
being depleted a little bit.
And so she's working on finding
these matches so that her family
can continue to keep the same
status that they've been used to
all of their lives.
>> Mrs. Dousman's parties
paid off.
For example, one guest,
Frederick Bigalow,
the suitor who wrote that
he gained seven pounds
and three quarter net,
married the second daughter,
Virginia.
A magnificent and dramatic era
for the Dousmans
came to a close.
>> By 1913, the children are
married, the house is in need
of some repairs,
and it's not really
fashionable any longer
to have such a grand estate.
>> Mrs. Dousman, her son Louis
and his family,
moved out of Villa Louis
for good in 1913.
They leased the home to a boys
school, but voided the contract
after four years.
The boys were simply too rough
on the house.
A solution for the property
was finally reached when
the Dousman family
turned it over to the city of
Prairie du Chien in 1935.
Fifteen years later,
the Wisconsin Historical Society
took ownership
and made Villa Louis
its first historic site.
Today, the home is open
to the public.
It's been painstakingly restored
to its splendor in the 1880s.
Villa Louis magnificently
captures the grandeur of
the Victorian era,
and the drama of the Dousmans.
*
An hour's drive
north of Eau Claire
is a small island
on Red Cedar Lake.
It's called Stout Island.
There, nestled among the trees,
is a unique summer lodge.
>> What our guests
talk about most is that this
is the first time in their life
they relaxed.
They're not checking their phone
to see who e-mailed them
or who texted them.
They leave it in the room.
They don't think about it.
They think about
who they're with.
>> Stout's Island Lodge
was originally
a private vacation home
that Frank Stout built
for his family.
He called it
the Island of Happy Days.
And it was certainly that,
even though at one point Stout
had to burn it to the ground.
*
Frank Stout was a financier
and banker in Chicago,
but his wealth was rooted
in Wisconsin forests.
His father helped make
Knapp, Stout and Company
one of the world's largest
lumber providers.
>> Northern Wisconsin
was covered with virgin timber,
and the king of all that timber
was white pine.
It was like gold
to these early lumbermen.
These trees were huge,
five, six feet in diameter.
And that's where the fortune
really was.
>> Frank Stout inherited
a portion of his father's
vast wealth in 1900.
That included this island
on Red Cedar Lake.
And Stout decided it would be
perfect for his vacation home.
The Island of Happy Days
was completed in 1903.
Frank Stout and his family
traveled there from Chicago
every summer.
He had a special track built
off the main railroad line
to get family, guests and
supplies to Red Cedar Lake.
Then from water's edge,
everything had to arrive
by boat.
[engine starts]
>> Today, the shuttle ride
is just a leisurely
ten minutes to Stout Island.
And the charms of the lodge
are on display as soon as
the boat approaches the dock.
>> The boathouse is one of
the areas that gets
the most attention.
It's the first moment of,
ahh, kind of magic.
Because there's not a lot of
these kind of boathouses left.
>> Up the stairs
from the boathouse,
the sprawling lodge beckons
as it did a century ago.
That is, after it was completely
rebuilt.
*
Frank Stout modeled
the Island of Happy Days,
which refers to the home
as well as the island itself,
on the famous Adirondack
great camps in upstate New York.
These compounds were
summer getaway homes
for the wealthy.
And Stout wanted his home
to be especially rustic.
>> Frank Stout, when he
built this, insisted that
the bark be left on the wood.
Within a few years, his house
became infested with bugs.
And he was forced to burn
his house down.
He wanted to rebuild on the same
homestead, but also he needed to
get rid of the bugs.
So, he spent
1.5 million dollars,
at that time, to do this.
>> That means Stout used
the equivalent of approximately
36 million in today's dollars
to rebuild
The Island of Happy Days.
It was enough to buy
the best of the best.
And that's exactly
what Frank Stout did.
When Stout rebuilt the lodge,
he brought in wood and stone
from around the country
and around the world.
In the great room,
he kept this fireplace,
fashioned of stone quarried
at nearby Mount Hardscrabble.
>> This is a time of artsman,
and craftsmanship.
Frank Stout brought
in pink granite from
the Blue Hills locally.
He brought in these
amazing beams from Germany
that are in the dining room.
>> It's very, very
finely crafted.
So even though it looks rustic,
it's the finest craftsmanship
that money could buy.
All of the hardware
is hand-wrought.
They built the bookcases right
into the log building itself.
They carved elaborate surrounds
around the bookcases.
The dining room has bow-tie ties
so the hardwood floor never
got cracks from the wood
swelling and shrinking.
>> All of these materials
and fine workmanship
create spaces that are inviting,
warm and cozy.
But it's outside where
the Stouts seemed to have
theirbiggestadventures.
*
Frank Stout and his wife, Clara,
had five children.
The family and their guests
spent a lot of time
at their getaway home.
And they left behind plenty
of evidence that their time
on the Island of Happy Days
was incredibly fun.
>> We see these great pictures
of them swimming
on these huge slides
that go down into the water,
and water skiing
on these planks of wood.
And in the winter,
sledding down and skiing across
the snow.
I don't think they had
dull moments here.
>> The Adirondack style
emulates the rustic look
of a pioneer's log cabin
on a grand scale.
The style developed at a time
when Americans were feeling
wistful about pioneer days,
and far safer
among the elements.
>> When you were a pioneer,
and you move out to
the wilderness,
the wilderness was your enemy
because the wilderness
could kill you.
You could starve,
you could freeze to death.
After the industrial revolution,
technology helps us
to be more comfortable
in the natural world.
The architecture comes
to express that
difference in attitude,
where we no longerfear
the natural world,
we wish we lived
in the natural world.
>> But were the Stouts
"living in the natural world"
at the Island of Happy Days?
>> This was not roughing it,
by any stretch.
They would come with huge
caravans with their china and
their silver and their servants.
>> The irony about
the Adirondack style
is these are people of great
wealth and great privilege,
and they don't want to rough it.
They wanted to have the idea
that they were getting away
to the natural world,
but they wanted all
the amenities that they had
back in the city.
>> The Stout family spent many
winter holidays and summers
in the home,
until 1927,
when Frank Stout was nearing
the end of his life.
And there was only one place
he wanted to be for that.
Frank Stout developed
heart trouble and was determined
to return to his north woods
retreat for his final days.
But he died en route,
in nearby Rice Lake,
only a few miles
from what he called
"the dearest place on earth."
After Stout's death,
the family visited
the Island of Happy Days
less and less,
until selling it in 1948.
The home went through
various owners and
was abandoned for many years.
It was eventually purchased
in 1990 by its current owners,
who renamed it
Stout's Island Lodge.
It's one of America's
few remaining
original Adirondack great camps.
>> Almost none of them
are open to the public.
They are still kept as family
compounds, for the most part.
>> Today, the lodge is
open to the public.
And it retains all of the charm
it must have had
when it was known as
the Island of Happy Days.
>> The vistas are gorgeous.
You look internally at
the buildings and they're
miraculous in their architecture
and their attention to detail.
Everywhere was well thought out.
I have found nowhere that
speaks to my soul and my heart
as much as this place does.
*
>> Brooks Stevens
was a 28 year-old
industrial designer
when he built his home in 1939.
Its stark, modern look
was completely at odds
with the more traditional houses
in Stevens' upscale
suburban neighborhood.
>> He's making a statement.
It's almost like
Brooks Stevens personified.
He was daring people of means
who had already lived in
the neighborhood to rethink
what it was to be living
in a modern age.
>> Brooks Stevens approached
designing his home
the same way he did
designing products.
It was always about the future.
Brooks Stevens enrolled
at Cornell University in 1929
to pursue a degree
in architecture.
But when he found he was
more interested in
drawing cars than buildings,
he quit school.
Stevens returned to his
hometown of Milwaukee during
the worst economic downturn
in American history.
>> In the 1930s, Americans
are looking to the future,
because in the present,
you're living in the Depression.
And it's a terrible time.
They're looking at what
life will be when we get
out of the Depression.
And they see that life
influenced by the modern
inventions of science.
*
>> The science of aerodynamics
led to the age's
futuristic-looking ships,
airplanes and trains.
And to get Americans buying
again, manufacturers applied
this look of aerodynamic design,
or streamlining, to products.
This was where Brooks Stevens
found his niche when he started
his industrial design business
at the age of 24.
By 1939, Stevens was
a rising star
in the industrial design world.
And he wanted a new home
that would express his
visionary take on the future.
>> Here's a designer, that
in his everyday role for us,
he's deciding,
what should an iron be?
What should the inside
of a train car be?
How does that give us a sense of
where we're going
as a progressive nation?
What's the future look like?
He has a chance to do that
in his own home.
>> The home that Brooks Stevens
designed for himself
and his family
is not like its neighbors,
traditional houses that look
to the past for inspiration.
The Stevens house is a bold
statement about the future.
*
Stevens built his house
in the village of Fox Point,
a fashionable Milwaukee suburb.
He collaborated with
architect, Fitzhugh Scott.
The house they devised
wasvery modern.
Historians have since dubbed
the style, Streamline Moderne.
And when it was built,
some neighbors derisively
called Stevens' new home
the only Greyhound bus station
in Fox Point.
>> Streamline Moderne
was adopted for train stations,
bus stations,
and it's because it came from
trains and buses
that were being designed.
So they were looking for
continuity, a look about
the future, and movement,
speed, travel.
So when you apply that to
ahouse, it's almost contrary
to the values of a typical house
as we think of it.
We want it to be rooted.
>> The house comes out of
the way that Brooks Stevens
sees the goods
that he's designing.
Brooks Stevens took his house
and then wrapped it in a shroud
to make it slick and clean
and simple and modern-looking.
>> Brooks Stevens
and his wife Alice
were still newlyweds
when they built their home.
Its exterior expressed
his career and ambitions.
But the interior
was a different story.
*
>> Brooks Stevens was someone
who made his career in
embracing the future.
That doesn't mean his wife
necessarily played
from that playbook.
>> Alice didn't exactly
buy into her husband's
design sensibility.
>> She felt that she wanted
something more traditional.
So she got her traditional
interior, and he got his
modern exterior.
>> They must have been
at loggerheads.
I mean, I would love to have
been a fly on the wall
and hear those conversations.
>> The interior of
Brooks Stevens' home
wasn'tentirely unrelated
to its modernist wrapping.
For example,
throughout the home,
Stevens used aluminum.
>> In the '30s,
it's the new material.
It's finally come down in price.
So they're starting to use it
for architectural details.
Brooks Stevens is all over it.
So from the entry door to
the balustrade of the staircase,
those details in the house
reinforce the idea
of something that's modern.
>> And the only window
with a view of the neighbors
took its cue
from streamlined ships.
>> That one window
that you look back
toward the neighbors
is a porthole window.
And it's almost like a lens.
You're seeing back in time
to history and how old
those houses look.
>> Brooks Stevens has been
described as a showman.
His house, the home for his
growing family, was also
a kind of stage set
for a modern man of business.
*
When hosting clients,
Stevens saw his home as
the perfect backdrop to sell
his vision of the future.
>> Well, he's selling
his personality,
he's selling his business,
his design acumen.
But he's also selling
a lifestyle.
Brooks Stevens was designing
modernity in the context
of an English country house.
It is all of
the beauty of the garden
and the house on the hill,
but it's modern.
You don't have to reject society
to be modern.
That progressive thinking and
innovative thinking can exist
within a corporate context.
And that's the sales pitch.
>> Stevens became a nationally
prominent industrial designer.
Some of his best-known work
included the Miller Beer logo,
the Jeep Wagoneer and
the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
When Stevens was asked
to identify a favorite
among his thousands of designs,
he replied, "None.
Because every one
would have to be restudied
for the tastes of tomorrow."
He was always thinking
about the future.
Brooks and Alice Stevens
lived in their home
for more than 40 years,
raising their four children.
Brooks Stevens died
at the age of 83.
*
The current owners of the home
bought it from
the Stevens family in 1985.
They have renovated the house
to suit family living today.
And yet it remains a wonderful
landmark of the 1930s.
>> The house is probably better
than it's ever been,
because the new owners really
understand both the time period
as well as what Brooks Stevens
was trying to achieve
in t 1930s.
So there's no longer
any conflict between
the interiors wanting to be
French Provincial
and designer with
Streamline Moderne
on the exterior.
Now the building envelope,
the spaces of the rooms,
the furniture within the rooms,
and the objects on those
pieces of furniture
are all within the context
of the 1930s,
and it's spectacular.
>> The Brooks Stevens house
reminds us of an America
positive about its future,
and a designer who brought
that future to life.
*
This home,
nestled in the prairies
of southeast Wisconsin,
was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's
favorites.
He designed it for
Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr.,
who was known as "Hib."
>> Hib Johnson would enjoy
saying that when they started
the project he was in charge,
and when they ended the project
Frank Lloyd Wright
was in charge.
And that relationship, I think,
is very indicative of how
this project was designed.
>> It was a collaboration
of two iconic Wisconsin men.
One, a daring
captain of industry
with a great love for flight.
The other,
a 69-year-old architect
embarking on
a phase of his career
that would secure his status
as a legend.
The result,
Wingspread.
In the 1920s and early 30s,
Frank Lloyd Wright's
commissions were sparse.
His distinguished architectural
career had stalled.
Yet his most
heralded design work
still lay ahead.
>> Frank Lloyd Wright viewed
the 1930s as
a set of opportunities,
where the crash of
the stock market
was a kind of a wake-up call
to America.
That we needed to think about
our culture differently,
we needed to think about
architecture differently.
>> In 1936 Wright was contacted
by Hib Johnson, president
of the Johnson Wax Company.
Johnsonexpanded the company
through the Depression years
with bold decisions
and clever marketing.
He often flew his own airplane
to create publicity sensations
around the country.
Hib Johnson commissioned
Frank Lloyd Wright
to design a new headquarters
for his company.
The outcome was the Johnson Wax
Administration Building.
It helped shine the spotlight
on Wright once again,
and it delighted his patron.
>> Johnson told Wright
that if he could only sleep
at that administrative building,
he would be quite happy.
And Wright said,
"Well, how about we design
a house for you?"
And Wingspread was the result
of that conversation,
as the story goes.
>> Wingspread was completed
in 1939 in Wind Point,
just north of Racine.
The house was named
for its four wings,
as would be seen by Hib Johnson
when he flew home
from business trips.
The 14,000 square foot home
was the largest residential
project of Wright's career.
And it would
exemplify his philosophy
of organic architecture.
Wingspread is not
an imposing mansion.
It sits low and horizontal
on the landscape.
Even entering the home
feels inviting and cozy.
>> You come in
through a very low entrance.
There's almost nothing
grand about it until
you come into this main space,
which almost shocks you.
*
>> This central core
encompasses several rooms
in one space,
an idea Wright refined
throughout his career.
The Johnson family could use
the different areas
as they needed.
>> What Wright does is create
an enormous space,
but he very carefully segregates
that space into places that can
be enjoyed, a small sitting area
for example.
That central space, by being
divided into a number
of different subsectors,
provides that sense of intimacy
that you would otherwise
never have.
>> Moving to the outdoors
at Wingspread often happens
through large French doors,
under generous overhangs,
and out onto paved terraces.
Organic architecture includes
the notion that a home should be
in harmony with its environment.
>> The idea in the 20th century
was how do you incorporate
the natural world
with the design of your house?
How do you break down
that barrier between
the inside and the outside?
So you break down
that distinction by having
spaces that are kind of
transitional spaces between
the inside and outside.
You have a patio that opens out
into the natural space.
And you situate your house
in a way that makes it part of
the natural environment.
*
>> Hib Johnson and
Frank Lloyd Wright would become
friends through the project.
But Johnson's role was perhaps
larger than the famously
autocratic architect
was used to.
The genesis of Wingspread was
unusual for a Wright project.
It was the client, Hib Johnson,
who came to Wright with a sketch
of a house with four wings,
a zoned plan that Wright
expanded and refined.
As Wright later wrote,
"I respect hunches of others,
that is, should they correspond
with mine."
*
One thing Wright and Johnson
shared was ambition.
They believed in
the American dream
and that it could be achieved.
Wright built this idea
into the heart of Wingspread.
>> The fireplace core represents
this aspirational quality
of the house.
The fireplace is the thrust
upward to the heavens,
and what that does,
is it provides that additional
sense of movement.
You're not just moving around
in a circle, but you're also
imagining yourself going up.
Wright made that movement
literal in this stair
that goes all the way up
to the crow's nest,
from which you can see
the entire lay of the estate.
>> It has been said that
Johnson's two children
came up with the idea
of the crow's nest.
Sam and Karin could get
a bird's eye view of their dad
as he flew back home.
By 1938, building Wingspread
was costing more than expected
and the work was slow.
That year, Johnson's enthusiasm
in completingthe home waned
due to a personal tragedy.
While Wingspread
was under construction,
Hib Johnson's wife died,
and he lost interest
in finishing the house.
With Wright's encouragement,
he did complete the work,
and in 1939,
moved in with his two children
and later remarried.
This was Johnson's home
for 20 years.
*
In 1961, the Johnson family
formally dedicated Wingspread
to The Johnson Foundation.
It is used by organizations
around the world to meet and
discuss solutions for
environmental and community
issues.
>> It's as if Wright
thought that was
going to happen one day.
And to be able to talk to other
leaders in the field
in a place like Wingspread is,
in a way, the perfect expression
of the architecture
of this building.
>> By the time Wingspread
was completed,
Wright was in his 70's.
The work for Hib Johnson helped
Wright build fresh momentum.
The next two decades would be
the most productive
in Wright's long career.
>> Wright's true brilliance
as an architect
is that he was able to take
what was popular stylistically
at any point in time
and filter it through his ideas
of organic architecture,
and in the end come up with
something that is very much
about him as an architect
and the way that he saw
the world.
And I think Wingspread is one
of the remarkable buildings
that you get to see that in.
>> Wright felt that we could
build an American architecture
here in the prairies of
the Midwest.
And I think Wingspread
is really a poem to the land
that it resides in.
*
>> These remarkable Wisconsin
houses are not simply artifacts.
Today they are beloved
private houses,
captivating museums
and dynamic meeting places.
Each of them
is as vital as ever.
And yet, they are unique
in the way they tell us
about our past.
>> These buildings,
they survive in the present
in a way that writings can't
and of course people don't.
So they really do give us
visible, tangible reminders
of our heritage.
>> We can't save
every building everywhere.
But I think we have to
save the best.
And these are markers.
They're historical cultural
markers of our progress
in design and taste,
but also in cultural
development.
>> We all have
aspirations today.
There are things that we
yearn for and that we want.
And these are the houses
that tell us about the dreams
of people who came before us.
*
2
>> To purchase a DVD of
Remarkable Homes of Wisconsin
visit wpt.org
or call 1-800-422-9707.
*
>> Remarkable Homes of Wisconsin
is funded in part by
the Jeffris Family Foundation
of Janesville, Wisconsin.
Dedicated to Midwestern
Historic Preservation
and Friends of
Wisconsin Public Television.