PICKARD HOUSE

Pickard house is the Ripon Historical Society's main headquarters, located at 508 Watson Street in Lot 3, Block 10 of Bovay's Addition. Over time, the house has served a variety of purposes and has been remodeled and changed accordingly.

We do not know exactly when the house was built, but we believe it house was built in the 1870’s and lived in by Avery Brown. The deed for the property records A. (Avery) Brown and Pamela Sisson as owners of the property up to 1900 when Pamela Sisson sold it to John S. Rountree, and he resold it to A. G. Farr for $2950.00.  A.G. Farr’s will, filed May 6, 1914, refers to this property “Known as Sisson Place” as having been given to Farr’s daughter, Shirley Farr, in 1904.

 We know that Belle Pickard of Oshkosh came to Ripon and occupied this house in 1912.  She was 24 years old, single, trained as a beautician and chiropodist.  She came with her ailing mother, Lulu, and two of her brothers, Sam and Franklin.  Her father, Herman, had died in 1907.  Belle, the chief support of her family, ran a beauty shop downstairs on the south side of the house and lived in the downstairs north rooms and upstairs.

 Probably she rented the house until 1923 when the deed shows the transfer of the property from Shirley Farr to Belle’s brother Sam, who was now a successful young banker and later became a trustee of Ripon College.

 Belle continued to live in the house and run a beauty shop until 1965.  At times she had one or two of her beauticians living with her.  Her brother Sam had married and moved to Neenah.  Franklin had died in 1917, and her mother had died in 1926 or 1928.

 For her business, alterations and additions were made.  She used what we now call the Entrance Room as her waiting room with the southwest corner curtained off for chiropody (foot care).  She enclosed the north end of the front porch.  It had windows, a door onto the porch and a door into what we now use as the office.  Elaine Briese, one of her beauticians who lived upstairs, ran a wool shop in the enclosed porch and the office.  She installed sinks in what is now our main floor Exhibit Room.  In the 1930s she added a large room with a small lavatory at the west end of the south side.  The Society later used this room for meetings.

In July 1965 Elaine Briese, who joined the beauty shop in 1937 and was the only beautician still working at Miss Pickard’s, opened her own beauty shop on Howard Street.  Miss Pickard closed her business.

The Society was offered the beauty shop area for its meetings.  Miss Pickard continued to occupy her living quarters until 1967 when she required nursing care.  At this time her brother Sam offered the property (house, garage, and land) to the Society if it could raise one-half of the value ($10,000) he put on the property.

Ann Calden, president of the Society at the time, negotiated the sale.  The Society’s one-half of the value was provided by the Elizabeth Murray Foundation.  The ownership transfer was completed in March 1968.  The house was in excellent condition.

Society members Dorothy Lambert and Fae Nichols, who were soon joined by Beverly King, took on the challenge of restoring the house to the 1910-1920 era when Belle Pickard first lived in it. The beauty shop equipment was removed.  Since little of Belle’s furniture was left behind, furnishings from the Ripon area were solicited.  Most were donated, and local civic organizations were asked and did take on the restoration of some of the rooms. 

By the early 1990s, the appearance of Pickard House and its functional inadequacies had become concerns of the Society’s membership and Board of Directors.

A timely gift from member Doris Miller in 1993 and the services of Rick Schroeder, restoration architect of Oshkosh, made possible the exterior restoration of the front of the house.  It included removal of asbestos shingles exposing the original clapboard, which proved repairable.  The added enclosed part of the front porch was removed to restore its appearance to that seen in early 20^th century photographs.  (See pictures on the south wall of the entrance room.)  To comply with today’s safety regulations, railings were added to the porch and stairs.  The exterior was painted.

The changed appearance was well received by both the membership and community.  With this success, the Board undertook an entirely private fundraising campaign to improve the functional aspects of Pickard House.  By 1998 adequate funds had been raised to hire Ripon Area Builders as the general contractor and to use Rick Schroeder, architect, for the second phase of Pickard House improvements.

The Society meeting room was removed, as were the Society’s shed-like kitchen behind the Museum kitchen and the two-story garage in the southwest corner of the yard.  All three were not part of the property in 1912, and the space they occupied was needed to make room for a new structure to be attached to the museum.

The new addition, completed by October 1999 in celebration of the Society’s 100^th year, met the identified needs.  They included, on the main floor, a larger meeting room/library with a required emergency exit porch on its east exterior wall, handicapped accessible bathrooms, a small kitchen, a storage closet and a workroom for the museum’s artifact accessioning, maintenance and exhibit preparation.  An elevator was installed, as required, for accessibility to the main floor and basement through a new rear entrance. 

The basement included space for the archives, with four ranges of shelving, a new five-drawer flat file, wiring for computer stations, vertical file cases, desks and reading tables, in addition to three storage rooms.  The entire Pickard House was provided with climate control, fire protection and a security system.  The architect’s street façade design for the addition with its required porch was in keeping with the age and appearance of the original house.

To maintain the period of the house, interior renovations and redecoration necessitated by the new construction were made in the museum kitchen, dining room, staircase and upstairs hall.  Also, on the advice of the Ripon Fire Department, the upstairs north wing children’s bedroom and toy room were closed to the public.

By 2002, redecoration of the Entrance Room and the conversion of the  south middle room to a Children’s Exhibit Room on the main floor completed the needed improvements identified in the early 1990s. In 2009 the Children's Exhibit Room became an Exhibit Room, not limited to children's exhibits.

RESOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF PICKARD HOUSE

Deed for 508 Watson Street—kept in Society’s safe deposit box at M&I Bank.

“Ripon Family Files”—individual folders in Society archives.

The following are located in the bookcase on the east wall of the meeting room: 

“Biographical and Statistical Information—Relating to Many Families That Have Lived in Ripon and Vicinity” compiled by Samuel M. Pedrick.  

History of Ripon by David P. Mapes   

A History of Ripon, Wisconsin by S. M. Pedrick and G. H. Miller

Call Me Sam by D. W. Pickard

Rear of Pickard House 1994

Rear of Pickard House, 2010

Side of Pickard House, 2010

Front of Pickard House, 2010