Courthouse Hill Historic District

The Courthouse Hill Historic District is a 30-block area on the east side of Janesville, Wisconsin, containing many historic structures built from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s in various styles, including homes of many of Janesville's influential leaders from that period. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.[1]

The first settlers arrived in what would become Janesville in 1835, two years after the end of the Black Hawk War. The following year Janesville was designated the seat of Rock County. Lumber mills sprang up, and flour mills to grind the wheat produced in surrounding farmlands. In 1851 the first Wisconsin State Fair was held in the Courthouse Hill area.[1]

People initially built smaller frame houses in what would become the district, but these were eventually replaced by larger, more substantial structures. By 1860 seven homes that still exist in the district were already there. Here are some examples of different styles, roughly in the order built.

• The Abel Jones house at 231-235 S Main St is a 2-story frame house built in the mid-1850s for Jones, a carpenter or tailor. The style is Greek Revival, seen in the massing, the frieze board, and the cornice returns.[2][1]
• The Chester Alden house at 211 S Main St is a 2-story stone-clad Italianate-style house built in 1856, with an elaborate front porch, wide eaves supported by paired brackets, and tall, ornate chimneys. Alden was an early mill owner.[3][1]
• The Doty-Baldwin house at 209-211 S. Atwood is a 2-story Italianate-style house with cream brick walls, paired brackets supporting wide eaves, and a low-pitched hip roof. The house was built about 1860 for grocer D.S. Treat, and later owned by Hendry A. Doty, head of the H.A. Doty Box Company. Later it was the home of A. Webster, clerk of circuit court.[4][1]
• The Thomas Lappin house at 404 St Lawrence Ave is another 2-story Italianate-style house. Its massing and decoration is similar to the previous two Italianates, but this one is all wood. It was designed by Janesville architect Gary Nettleton and built in 1864 for Lappin, an Irish immigrant merchant who opened the city's first store.[5][1]
• The Wheelock house at 418 St Lawrence Ave is a 3-story brick house built in 1865. Its style is Second Empire, indicated by its mansard roof - one of the few of that style in the city. The house was built for Wadsworth G. Wheelock, who established a crockery factory that was one of Janesville's largest businesses. In 1898 the house was bought by George Sutherland, a lawyer and banker.[6][1]

The Lovejoy and Merrill-Nowlan Houses are inside the district.[7]