The Evansville House

Researched and written by Ruth Ann Montgomery

Shortly after the Spencer House hotel was built in 1855, Nathaniel Libby decided to build his residence and purchased two building lots from Hiram Spencer for $60. This was the amount usually paid for unimproved lots in the village of Evansville in the 1850s. Libby's house faced the Sugar River Road, later known as East Main Street. The road was a direct route from Janesville to the rapidly growing farming areas in northwestern Rock and northeastern Green County area.

Farmers bringing their wheat and other farm products to market stopped for rest and meals at hotels located along the trade route as they traveled to Janesville and further east to market their goods. In the late 1850s Evansville was also growing as commercial center. A grain mill, saw mill and stores attracted farmers from the surrounding area.

Nathaniel Libby and his son, William, had helped build Henry Spencer's hotel, the Spencer House. With the promise of a railroad from Beloit to Evansville and beyond to the state's capital at Madison, Nathaniel Libby thought he saw a great opportunity in the hotel business. The Libby residence was enlarged to provide sleeping rooms for travelers with the hope that the hotel would provide additional income for the family. Libby also built a livery stable of hand-hewn logs to house the horses, buggies and wagons of the travelers.

The Sugar River Road was no more than a dirt path, but stages and farm wagons traveled the route from Evansville to Janesville, as there was be no railroad connection between the two communities for many years. The Beloit Madison Railroad Company was selling stock to local investors and promised that tracks would be built within a block of Libby's land on East Main Street. By 1858, a Rock County map showed N. Libby's building on the site he had purchased and the proposed railroad tracks running west of Allen's Creek. In reality, the tracks had only been built from Beloit to Footville.

When the railroad finally did come to Evansville in 1863, Libby wanted out of the hotel business. He made a handsome paper profit when Elias Loser of Dupage, Illinois bought the Evansville House in March 1864 for $2,000. Libby held a mortgage for $1,500 on the property. However, Loser sold the business within a year to Joseph Marvin of Calhoun County, Michigan and neither owner was able to turn the profit they had hoped. The property went back to Libby.

Nathaniel's son, Harrison Libby, decided to try his hand at the hotel business but his attempt was short-lived. On April 4, 1866, the earliest Evansville newspaper, the Citizen, reported, "We understand that Mr. Harrison Libby is to leave the hotel and go into the Boot and Shoe business with his brother. The house is to be fitted up for private residences."

Still others decided to try their hand. William Winston, purchased the building for $1,900 and opened the old hotel in July 1867. Winston had no hotel experience and lasted just nine months, then sold the business to Benjamin Francisco, a civil war veteran, for $2,000. In contrast, reflecting the success of the larger hotel's business, the Spencer House was sold that same year for $6,000.

Daniel Wadsworth purchased the hotel from Francisco in 1868 and provided a longer term of ownership. For the next 14 years, Wadsworth acted as the landlord and rented the building to others.

Evansville's first veterinarian, T. E. Lucas and his wife leased the Evansville House livery and hotel in the 1870s. Lucas, a graduate of the London Royal Veterinary College, ran the livery and practiced his profession as veterinary surgeon and his wife operated the hotel.

Lucas was followed by another veterinarian, Dr. Charles Winship, who also operated Evansville's ice business. Winship supplemented his veterinary, hotel and livery income by cutting ice from streams and ponds in the winter, storing the ice through the cold months, then delivering it to local residents in the summertime.

Strong competition from other hotels was probably the reason for the frequent turnover of the business. By the 1880s there were three hotels operating in Evansville, The Central House (formerly the Spencer House), the Commercial Hotel (today's Coach House restaurant) and the Evansville House . "Boarders" provided the steady income the hotelkeepers needed to stay in business. All three hotels served as permanent housing for single men and women who worked in local businesses and factories.

In 1881, landlord Wadsworth added a large porch to the Evansville House, "improving the appearance of the hotel", according to a report in the Evansville Review. When Wadsworth died in 1882, his widow, Lydia held on to the property for four more years.

Lydia sold the property to Mordecai Sayles in 1886 and Sayles immediately made improvements by adding a new kitchen and sleeping rooms onto the hotel. However, a year and a half later Sayles sold the business back to Lydia Wadsworth for $4,000, the amount he had paid for the property.

Widow Wadsworth turned the hotel over to a succession of managers in the late 1880s and early 1890s. They included Martin Edwards, L. C. Brewer (who later became manager of the Central House) and Fred Barnum,

The livery of the old hotel was leased separately. Dr. Charles S. Ware arrived in Evansville in March 1893, a graduate of the London Royal Veterinary College, like Dr. Lucas. He purchased Charlie Winship's livery business and operated the livery and veterinary business. Ware's advertisements in the local paper promised "Operations carefully performed. Horse and cattle medicines of the best quality always on hand. Calls attended personally day or night."

In February 1894, Frank Van Patten moved into the hotel with his wife and daughter, Ethel. Little eight-year-old Ethel was told a remarkable ghost story that still intrigues those interested in haunted houses. Frank Van Patten told his daughter that one of the hotel maids had been strangled by her married lover. After the man killed the girl, he ran to catch an outgoing freight train. He lost his hold on the train, fell onto the tracks and was killed.

Ethel's father said that each night at 3 a.m. he was awakened by loud footsteps. After a thorough search of the house, Van Patten could find no one moving about in the night. When he asked his hotel guests, no one admitted to being awake and walking during the night. Ethel was told that the loud footsteps were made by the ghost of the young man, perpetually doomed to flee each night from his terrible crime.

While it makes a wonderful ghost story, no murder ever occurred in the hotel or anywhere else in the village of Evansville during that period of its history. However, the story of the Evansville House ghost continues to this day. Children and adults are curious and often visit the library to find Ethel's story that has been retold in the books Haunted Wisconsin by Beth Scott and Wisconsin Lore, edited by Robert Gard.

Despite the lack of documentation to support the ghost story, Ethel gave one of the rare interior descriptions of the hotel when she told her story to Robert Gard. She said the building had "the office on the west with a door opening onto a long, wide veranda (the one built by Wadsworth). In the front, which faced the south, was another huge door which led into a long hall, from which opened several and various rooms."

The Van Patten family did have one traumatic experience while living in the Evansville House. In October 1894, a fire broke out in the hotel. The residents quickly removed all the furniture from the house and everyone was safely evacuated from the building. No one was injured and the local fire department saved the building. A heavy rainstorm helped to douse the fire.

The water and fire damage was covered by insurance, but the hotel had to be closed for repairs. The following spring the Van Pattens moved out of the hotel. The business did not open to the public again until April 1896 when James Ennis of Orfordville rented the hotel.

Temperance workers soon discovered that Mr. Ennis was illegally selling liquor. He was arrested three times within six months and paid a hefty fine of $245. Ennis signed an agreement that he would not sell, or even give away, any liquor for a period of five years. He was also to allow Evansville's mayor and chief of police to inspect the hotel at any time they desired, to make sure that there was no liquor on the premises. Discouraged by his legal problems, Ennis left the hotel business.

Once again the hotel was up for sale and Edmond and Jane Fellows of Brooklyn decided to buy the Evansville House. The property was put in Jane's name and the Fellows' paid $2,200 for the property. Fellows operated the hotel with Frank Gibbs Jr. for three years, selling out to Simon Strauss in September 1903.

By the early 1900s the hotel ownership stabilized once more. Emma Bishop purchased the hotel and livery in 1913 and remained the owner until 1943. The Bishop's immediately invested in remodeling the building. They added a second story to the rear of the hotel to increase the number of sleeping rooms available.

A new highway helped bring increased business to the Evansville House and probably decreased the business at the Central House at the same time. The new highway by-passed downtown Evansville but went directly past the Evansville House.

There was no street running north of the Evansville House until State Highway 13, known as "Wisconsin's Main Street", was built in 1925. The new road turned north, just before the intersection with the railroad tracks. It was a safety measure to decrease the numbers of car-train accidents.

State Highway 13 was a cement highway that connected the county seat with cities of more than 5,000. The portion of the road that went through Evansville was known as the Janesville-Evansville-Madison road. Highway 13 (later Federal highway 14) ran the full length of the state from Beloit in the south to Ashland in the north.

It was hoped that prosperity would follow the highway for the towns and businesses along its route. Trucks carrying produce and merchandise used the new cement road. By the late 1920's, the road that went through Evansville, was also part of the National Parks Highway System that the federal government advertised to encourage travelers to visit Yellowstone and other parks.

Tourist camps, cottages and hotels along the new highway greatly benefited from the well-paved roads that were used by automobile tourists and truck traffic. The Evansville House was no exception. Throughout the next several decades Mrs. Bishop welcomed travelers. After her husband’s death in 1929, Emma continued to run the business on her own for 12 more years.

Some of the Bishop Hotel guests were permanent residents and at least one operated his business out of the hotel. H. Libenson advertised that he had closed his junk business previously located at 457 East Main St. and requested that those who wanted to get the most for their junk could phone him at the Bishop Hotel.

In December 1941, the Evansville Review reported that one of Evansville's oldest business places was closing. Mrs. Emma Bishop was about to retire from the hotel business and move in with her daughter and son-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Verne Worthing.

Two years later the old hotel was sold to Ralph and Mary Brzezinski. The sleeping rooms in the second story were converted to apartments. Rooms on the first floor were used to process eggs that were purchased from local farmers and sent to markets in larger cities. Another part of the building was leased to tenants who operated a restaurant and bar. The restaurant was known as the East Side Inn and featured a Friday night fish fry, steaks and seafood.

George Brzezinski opened a small grocery store with the East Side Filling station, in 1949. Like today's convenience stores, the stock was small, but the hours of operation, on evenings and Sundays, kept the customers coming. Many of the grocery stores allowed people to buy on credit and they also offered delivery of groceries to homes. The East Side Grocery had none of these. There was no credit allowed and there was no delivery, according to their advertisements in the newspaper.

In 1958, Ronald and Pleasy Berg purchased the old hotel and operated a steak house and bar. Mr. Berg was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident in 1961 but Pleasy Berg carried on the business until 1984 when she sold it to Corvan Neuenschwander. The restaurant was a favorite dining spot in Evansville.

An early morning fire destroyed the building in November 1988. Residents in the apartments on the second floor were awakened and escaped without injury. The fire was out of control when the Evansville Fire Department arrived and several area fire departments assisted in fighting the blaze. The fire could not be stopped and the building was lost.

The original owner, Nathaniel Libby, would have been amazed at the increased value of the property. 130 years after the hotel was erected, the building and its contents lost in the fire were estimated to be worth $175,000.

Within a year, the remains of the building were buried at the site or taken away and the Francois Oil Company purchased the land to build the Grove Quick-Mart, a Citgo gas station and convenience store. Beneath the new building, the ashes of the old building lie buried. The Evansville House and its ghost story live on in the imaginations of many Evansville residents, along with pleasant memories of good meals with friends and family.