BROOKLYN, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Upper Lone Tree Farm Historic District in the Town of Brooklyn in Green Lake County on the State Register of Historic Places. The Upper Lone Tree Farm Historic District encompasses approximately 23 acres just south of State Highway 23.
The Upper Lone Tree Farm Historic District is an exceptional example of a model farm and is notable for its distinctive display of Dutch Colonial Revival style architecture for the majority of its buildings. It stands today as one of the last intact model farms developed in Wisconsin and as a result, is one of the rarest farm property types in the state. The estate was developed primarily between 1913 and 1916 for Jessie and Victor Lawson as the second of two model farms on their property. The Lawsons’ immense wealth and Jessie Lawson’s passion and attention to detail in developing her model farms resulted in a collection of state-of-the-art, aesthetically-cohesive buildings and structures of high-quality materials and construction. While the district is no longer used for agriculture, it collectively constitutes a rare surviving example of the model farms of the early 20th century.
The district encompasses approximately 23 acres with 23 resources constructed between 1913 and 1954. The distinctive Dutch Colonial Revival architecture was instigated by the estate’s architect and superintendent, William A. Merigold Jr. The animal barns carry a special motif designed by Jessie Lawson: oversize haymow doors with multi-pane, fixed upper windows and multi-pane, quarter-round transoms set in a round arch. The Guernsey dairy cow barn is individually significant because it is representative of the Wisconsin Dairy Barn with a center aisle parallel to the ridge of the roof with a row of stanchions on either side on the ground floor and a gambrel roof with improved ventilation and sanitation. The Shell Gas Station stands as a fine and intact example of a “house” filling station building type erected in 1954 as a wood-frame building also in Dutch Colonial Revival style.
The Lawson’s second estate, known as Lawsonia, was sold to H.O. Stone and Company in the 1920s as a country club, became a summer resort during the Great Depression, and has been owned by the American Baptist Assembly since 1943. The property remains under the ownership of the American Baptist Assembly and is used as a part of the Green Lake Convention Center.
Additional information for the Upper Lone Tree Farm Historic District is available at: https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/NationalRegister/NR2855
To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15299
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.
