architectural ornament deposited during depression around longtime chicago wrecker’s lake delton summer home rediscovered

Midway Gardens (opened in 1914, demolished in 1929):

Chicago Board of Trade (completed in 1885, demolished in 1929):

additional ornament salvaged from midway gardens housed in the bldg. 51 musuem collection:

all images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive. all rights reserved. 2022.

captain abraham vanderpoel, who was made rich by timber, built dawn manor in 1855. he was a signer of the wisconsin constitution and a friend of abraham lincoln. the delton company e drilled in the yard of the house before heading for camp randall, madison and the civil war. the house had a second floor schoolroom where private tutors taught. daughters were married in the library.

s.h. kerfoot, a lawyer and millionaire from chicago, purchased dawn manor and added stables for his horses and carriage. he was known for his horses and fishing records. he died and his wife left the house with the table set and her clothes in the closets. the library was left with volumes of first editions.

dawn manor was left for many years untouched.

developer, william j. newman of chicago bought dawn manor in 1927, and planned a 600-acre lake to cost $1,200,000. he acquired 3,000 acres for the project, but died broke due to the great depression.

next, the house served as a hotel.

in 1942, helen hammond raab purchased dawn manor and 1,000 acres in the area. she began buying land in 1929. she moved to the house in 1942, after the death of her husband, george raab of milwaukee. he was an artist and lecturer at the layton art gallery in milwaukee.

she met her husband while modeling at the art gallery. helen hammond was born in lincoln, nebraska, and moved, at 17, to milwaukee. they had a son, kirby.

she had plans for the land. she had pine trees planted in 1943 and 1944, they stand along highway a.

the green ducks pass through the land on the way to the river. she had a lake dug on the north side of the road and stocked with fish.

she carefully restored dawn manor to its earlier look. she removed small rooms from the hotel period and discovered “dawn blue” the color of earlier times.

she collected items from her travels around the world. she liked silver, pewter, native art, oriental rugs, and other things. there was a lincoln room with portraits her husband painted, but she said, “lincoln never slept there, though vanderpoel was a friend.”

she inherited jewelry, oriental rugs and prints from the second mrs. frank lloyd wright, helen raab had helped care for miriam noel wright during her last illness.

helen raab liked animals, be it a donkey she drove with a cart, goats, dogs, cats and geese. the goats lived along the river in caves and were enjoyed by the tourists. my father-in-law was asked to bring a billy goat for breeding. the goat was hungry and jumped from pen to pen at the minnesota state fair, until he went in a pen with horned dorset rams. they set him straight in a few minutes and was well behaved on the way to wisconsin dells.

helen raab died in 1970, and promised dawn manor to the wisconsin state historical society according to a june 20, 1962, news article in the milwaukee journal.