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Architectural Description of the Knapp House

The appearance of this house today is most likely very similar to its original appearance. During the years three porches have adorned the house, starting in the 1850’s with a small front porch flanked by a bay window to the left, which no longer exists. Around 1898 a rambling porch was added which swept across the front of the building and down its southwest façade. In turn, this porch was removed more recently and replaced with the present small porch supported by two Ionic columns in front of two Ionic pilasters.

The house is built of indigenous sandstone from the Westport quarry, as are many of Madison’s other aristocratic mid-19^th century houses. Unlike the others, however, this house has an asymmetric façade composed of three blocky masses. To the right of the entrance is one-story, flat roofed stone projection with a pair of deeply-recessed windows which are unadorned by hooded moldings. Other windows in the façade are also deeply recessed, but have generous hood moldings with keystone motifs. These richly-formed windows, casting marked shadows, are the most striking feature of the main elevation, closely followed by the generous eaves of the roof which are supported on large brackets. These brackets are paired at corners, which are further embellished by recessed panels under the eaves. On the northeast elevation is a white, one-story bay window.

Attached to the rear of the main body of the house is a subordinate stone wing, which is less elaborately executed. The roof is lowered and the walls planes recessed, and the windows are smaller with only plain lintels and sills. Roof brackets are also smaller, and are paired.

The house has a very gently sloped-hipped roof topped by a widow’s walk. Four centrally-located chimneys penetrate the roof.

The design of the house is unusually restrained for the mid-19^th century, making it appealing to one with contemporary taste. Assigning the proper “style” to a Midwestern building of this period is oten hazardous because of the way styles quickly came and went, and because designers had no qualms about combining styles which had been regarded as incompatible previously. This house is a Victorian design with Italianate influences, a “style” shared with many other Madison residences of the period.

Toward the end of the last century, a Norwegian formal terraced garden was built on the northwestern lawn of this house. Though this garden is no longer preserved, traces of it can be found today. The spacious lawns on this side of the house run down to the shore of Lake Mendota, where a University of Wisconsin boathouse has been built only recently. 

Jeffrey Dean, State Preservation Planner. State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1972.