Richland Center City Auditorium
The building in 2012
Richland Center City Auditorium is located in Wisconsin
Richland Center City Auditorium
Interactive map showing the location of Richland Center City Auditorium
Location182 N. Central Ave., Richland Center, Wisconsin
Coordinates43°20′09″N 90°23′08″W / 43.33583°N 90.38556°W / 43.33583; -90.38556 (Richland Center City Auditorium)
Area1.4 acres (0.57 ha)
Built1912 (1912)
ArchitectPercey D. Bentley
Architectural styleNeoclassical[1]
Part ofCourt Street Commercial Historic District (ID89001955[2])
NRHP reference No.80000182[3]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPAugust 18, 1980
Designated CPNovember 13, 1989

The Richland Center City Auditorium is a three-story red brick public auditorium in Richland Center, Wisconsin. It was built in 1912 as a combination city hall, theatre, and clubhouse. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its significance in local social and political history.[4] It was also listed as a contributing structure to the Court Street Commercial Historic District in 1989.[5] The auditorium currently houses the Richland County Performing Arts Center.[6][7]

History

The building is notable as one of the first in Wisconsin to combine the functions of a city hall with a theater under direct municipal management.[4][8] Several older combination city hall and opera house buildings exist in the state, such as the Prairie du Chien City Hall and Hazel Green Town Hall, but their opera houses were typically leased and privately operated or used for school and volunteer events.[9][10] The Richland Center chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, a progressive reform and women's suffrage organization, was instrumental in promoting the concept of a mixed-used facility that would meet their city's needs for meeting space and sustainable revenue.[11] The club led a campaign to persuade the all-male electorate to vote to borrow funds for the building in a 1911 city referendum. The club and its supporters also successfully lobbied the Wisconsin legislature to change state law in 1913 order to allow the city to operate the auditorium as an income-generating property.[12][13]

When the building opened in 1913, it housed the city council chambers, offices for city officials, and meeting rooms for the local women's club and commercial club.[14] The centerpiece of the building was a 926-seat auditorium with a 30 by 50 foot stage and fourteen dressing rooms.[15] The theatre hosted a wide range of public events that attracted audiences from the surrounding countryside. In addition to entertainment offerings such as plays, concerts, and films, the auditorium also hosted educational lectures, school graduations, and political rallies. Notable political speakers in the building's first decade included William Jennings Bryan and William Howard Taft.[4] The building received national publicity as a model of small-town civic enterprise and public management.[14][15][16]

Following the success of the Richland Center City Auditorium, other Wisconsin cities built similar mixed-use facilities. Surviving examples include the 1916 Colfax Municipal Building in Colfax, Wisconsin[17] and the 1923 Lancaster Municipal Building, in Lancaster, Wisconsin.[18]

The Richland Center Auditorium continued to house the city government until 1998, when the city moved its offices to a new municipal building. The city subsequently deeded the auditorium to the Richland County Performing Arts Council, a private non-profit organization. The arts council began a restoration of the building in the 2010s and continues to operate the theatre as a performing arts venue.[19][20][21]

Architecture

Richland Center hired architect Percey Dwight Bentley of La Crosse, Wisconsin to design the building. Bentley was relatively new to architectural practice and had recently left architectural studies at the Armour Institute without completing a degree.[7] He planned the auditorium in a highly simplified Neoclassical style evident in the concrete Ionic capitals that surmount the brick pilasters on the front facade, as well as in the dentils of the concrete cornice. The exterior otherwise features minimal ormentation, and consists primarily of red brick walls on a stone foundation.[1]

The interior of the theater originally included painted mountain scenery and gold leaf ornamentation. A curved balcony provided additional seating. Much of the original interior decoration was lost in later renovations.[4][1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Property Record: 182 N Central Ave". Wisconsin Historical Society. 1 January 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#89001955)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Richland Center City Auditorium". National Park Service. Retrieved July 20, 2022. With accompanying pictures
  5. ↑ Joan Rausch; Jovce McKay (August 29, 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Court Street Commercial Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved March 7, 2018. With 40 photos.
  6. ↑ "Local History". Richland Center Tourism. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  7. 1 2 "About the City Auditorium". Richland County Performing Arts Council. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  8. ↑ Galpin, C.J. (January 1914). "Rural social centers". Bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin (234): 34–38. ISBN 9781354782781.
  9. ↑ Mark H. Ihm (2002). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Prairie du Chien City Hall". National Park Service. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  10. ↑ Heggland, Timothy F. (1988-07-14). "Hazel Green Town Hall". NRHP Inventory-Nomination Form. National Park Service. Retrieved 2022-07-24.
  11. ↑ McBride, Genevieve G. (1993). On Wisconsin women : working for their rights from settlement to suffrage. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780299140045.
  12. ↑ "National or State Registers Record: 182 N. Central Ave". Wisconsin Historical Society. 1 January 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  13. ↑ "Chapter 99". Wisconsin Session Laws, 1913. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Printing Co., state printers. 1913. p. 99.
  14. 1 2 Dyer, Walter A. (1915-08-15). "Richland Center and the Spirit of the Middle West: How Life in a Small Town is Made Big With Possibilities". The World's Work: A History of Our Time. Vol. 30, no. 4. pp. 485–490.
  15. 1 2 Pease, E.R. (May 1919). "Making Life Worth While in a Small Town". The American City. Vol. 20, no. 5. pp. 439–440.
  16. ↑ "Model Municipal Auditorium in Town of Three Thousand". The Lyceum News. Vol. 3, no. 5. May 1913. p. 4.
  17. ↑ Miller, Elizabeth L. (2003-05-10). "Colfax Municipal Building". NRHP Inventory-Nomination Form. National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  18. ↑ Filipowicz, Diane H. (November 1982). "Lancaster Municipal Building". NRHP Inventory-Nomination Form. National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  19. ↑ Adams, Barry (10 Apr 2012). "On Wisconsin: Grand plan for the arts in Richland Center". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  20. ↑ Hesselberg, George (2 Aug 2013). "Donations launch effort for Richland Center auditorium". madison.com. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  21. ↑ Finn, Amanda (23 July 2017). "The show must go on: Saving Wisconsin's historic theaters". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 20 July 2022.


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