Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference Coming to Wisconsin and the Third Lake Ridge.

The Historic Third Lake Ridge of the Marquette Neighborhood will be a featured part of a city-wide tour to take place Friday, June 8 for the annual convention of the Vernacular Architecture Forum in Madison. Over 300 people are expected to attend the conference from all over the United States and elsewhere. The group mainly consists of architectural historians, historians, city planners, geographers, folklorists, and preservation professionals.

The conference, "Nature + City: Vernacular Buildings & Landscapes of the Upper Midwest" will also offer a tour of Southwestern Wisconsin on Thursday, to include stone buildings built by Cornish masons in the lead mining community of Mineral Point and the Swiss-built buildings of New Glarus, a day of presenting papers (Saturday) and other events.

"Third Lake Ridge was a working-class neighborhood, and worthy of sharing as a relatively intact neighborhood of houses spanning more than fifty years of a community's early development" said Anna Andrzejewski, an associate art professor at UW-Madison who has been planning the conference for five years. "We’ve been surprised at what we’ve found, especially the diverse range of buildings and occupants. We know the neighborhood will be a highlight of the conference."

The morning of June 8, residents can expect several buses to come to the neighborhood. A 250-page guidebook based on research by Andrzejewski, her colleagues, and her students will guide participants through this neighborhood and others in Madison that day, pointing out particular points of interest. The stress is on "common" or "ordinary" housing versus grand structures, which is something not often featured on neighborhood walking tours.

For information on the Vernacular Architecture Forum's annual conference view the web site: http://www.union.wisc.edu/vaf2012/index.html. The registration page on the website summarizes conference costs "at a glance." Tours include coach transportation, meals, and reception costs.

Attending the tours is part of a conference package that includes a base registration fee; at this time, it is not possible to register for one or more tours without paying this fee (which includes an annual VAF membership). Once the registration deadline passes (May 15), open slots on tours will be made available to the general public. Check back to the website for information on this option.

WSHS Richard and Georgia Lloyd Jones family photo album.

Richard Lloyd Jones, editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, and uncle to Frank Lloyd Wright, built the house at 941 Harvey Terrace and lived there. A few years later he rented the new house at 1010 Walker Ct now Rutledge Ct. in the heart of was the Third Lake Ridge Neighborhood, now the Marquette Neighborhood.

The Wisconsin Historical Society presently has online scores of photos from the Jones-Snoke family photo album thanks to the research and coordination of the project by Frank Lloyd Wright historian Mary Jane Hamilton. See scores of never before published photographs of neighborhood and Madison landmarks, including the Walker and Gill mansions on Spaight Street, the West Madison Depots, the East Madison Depots on East Wilson Street near Blair, Williamson Street, the lake shore, the Claude and Starck-designed Bird House at the Vilas Zoo, and the interior of the Jones homes.

From the Wisconsin Historical Society site: "The Richard & Georgia Lloyd Jones Sr. family photo album was donated to the WHS by their granddaughter Georgia Lloyd Jones Snoke. Richard Lloyd Jones Sr. was editor and publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal from 1911 to 1919. In the late summer of 1919 the family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Richard had purchased the Tulsa Democrat, renaming it the Tulsa Tribune, and served as its editor and publisher until his retirement."

images at www.wisconsinhistory.org

Special thanks to Bill Droster, who sumbitted these great photos of two nieghborhood homes he grew up in.

1422 Rutledge St, then and now


1534 Morrison St

The Meyer and Moeglin families of Williamson St

Friends of Third Lake Ridge are pleased to share historical documents which portray part of the histories of the Meyer and Moeglein (also, Moeglin and Moegelin) families on Williamson Street in Madison. They occupied three houses throughout much of the late 19th Century. The loan of original documents and donation of digital documents for online postings include portraits and building photos, articles, stories, and a Civil War release document.
Moeglein Family History (pdf)
Jospeh Moeglein Obituraries
Meyer Family History
Thanks to Dorothy Swanson and her family for sharing these.

The Friends of Historic Third Lake Ridge are a group of neighbors who seek to promote, popularize, and defend the historic character of the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood through education, events, and activism. The Third Lake Ridge Historic District was created in 1979 as Madison's second local historic district.