The following excerpt was presented by the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation at the 2013 Local History and Historic Preservation Conference in early October. This excerpt is the seventh in a series of eight stories we will publish to the WTHP blog over the next few weeks. Please check back often for more. You can find the whole series here.
The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs plans to demolish the 1929 Hospital Building on the campus of the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King for the construction of a new 200-bed skilled nursing facility. The building, designed by Arthur Peabody, is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The Wisconsin Veterans Home was established by the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888 on the shores of Rainbow Lake, part of Waupaca’s Chain O’ Lakes. Arthur Peabody was born in Eau Claire in 1858 and was campus architect for the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 1905 to 1915. He became state architect of Wisconsin in 1915 and designed a number of Madison landmarks, including the Wisconsin State Office Building, the UW Memorial Union, Camp Randall Field House, and the university’s Carillon Tower.