TOWN OF PERRY
DANE COUNTY, WISCONSIN
 
HISTORIC RESOURCES  INTENSIVE SURVEY REPORT

 prepared by
Timothy F. Heggland, Principal Investigator
Mazomanie, Wisconsin

prepared for
Town of Perry Historic Preservation Commission
Mr. Darren Walker, Project Director
October, 2006

Town of Perry Historic Preservation Commission
Town of Perry
Dane County, Wisconsin

This project has been funded with the assistance of a grant-in-aid from the Park Service, US. Department of the Interior, under the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended.  Historic    Preservation grants-in-aid are administered in Wisconsin in conjunction with the National Register of Historic Places program by the Division of Historic Preservation of the Wisconsin Historical Society.  However, the contents and opinions contained in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Park Service or the Wisconsin Historical Society.

 

ABSTRACT

Title:          Town of Perry Intensive Architectural/Historical Survey - Final Report
 
Author:      Timothy F. Heggland, Principal Investigator
 
Subject:     An intensive survey of the historic buildings, structures and sites within an area that corresponds to everything included within the boundaries of the Town of Perry in Dane County as of 2006.

Date:         September, 2006
 
Products Depository:   Town of Perry
                                   Dane County Historical Society
                                   Mount Horeb Public Library
                                   Division of Historic Preservation, Wisconsin Historical Society

This report documents an intensive architectural/historical survey of all resources located within a project area that corresponds to the Town of Perry in Dane County, Wisconsin as of January 1, 2006.  The boundaries of the study area was set by the Town of Perry in conjunction with the staff of the State of Wisconsin's Division of Historic Preservation prior to the beginning of this study.  Subsequently, a reconnaissance survey of this area was undertaken by the principal investigator as the first part of the intensive architectural/historical survey, after which an intensive research effort designed to ascertain the historic and architectural significance of the resources identified by the reconnaissance survey was undertaken by the principal investigator.  The results of this research is summarized in this intensive survey report and they are also embodied in individual survey cards for all the resources studied, which were prepared in both printed and electronic forms to standards set by the Division of Historic Preservation. 
 
The purpose of this intensive survey project was two-fold; to identify all the resources within the study area that are potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and to provide the Town of Perry, Dane County, and other state, and national agencies with a comprehensive data base that covers all the historic resources within the study area.  The intensive survey ultimately surveyed 46 individual resources and groups of resources.  Of these, nine individual buildings and building complexes were identified as having potential for listing in the National Register. 

INTRODUCTION

On July 12, 2005 the Town of Perry authorized Timothy F. Heggland, an historic preservation consultant based in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, to undertake a reconnaissance survey and an intensive survey of all the historically and architecturally significant historic resources that are located within a project area that corresponds to the boundaries of the Town of Perry, located in Dane County.  The reconnaissance survey was conducted throughout the remaining months of 2005 and was completed in mid-January of 2006.  Funding for both the reconnaissance survey and the intensive survey that followed was provided by a grant in aid from the U.S. Department of the Interior as administered by the Division of Historic Preservation (DHP) of the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS).  Both the reconnaissance survey and the intensive survey phases of the overall project were conducted by Mr. Heggland and were monitored by Mr. Joe DeRose, Historian at the DHP, and Mr. Darren Walker, representing the Town of Perry Historic Preservation Commission, who acted as the County's Project Manager.  Additional oversight was provided by Mr. Jim Draeger, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at the DHP.

The primary intent of a reconnaissance survey is to identify all the individual resources and groups of resources within a project area that are of historical and/or architectural significance.  Some of these resources are then researched in greater detail in the intensive survey that follows and the resulting information becomes a data base that can be used by the sponsoring organization in making future planning decisions.  A secondary intent of these surveys is the identification of individual resources and groups of resources (called farmsteads, complexes, or districts) that have the potential for being listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). 

The boundaries of the Town of Perry project area were set by the Town and correspond to all the resources that were located within the Town as of August, 2005, save only for those resources that were located in the unincorporated hamlets of Daleyville and Forward, both of which constitute the only communities in the Town and both of which were surveyed in 2002 as part of the Intensive Survey of the Unincorporated Hamlets of Dane County, which was also conducted by Mr. Heggland.  All of the Town's other resources were surveyed excepting only the single one that is already listed in the NRHP.  This is the Hauge Log Church (NRHP 12-31-74), which is located in Section 7 of the Town.

The reconnaissance survey ultimately identified 46 resources within the project boundaries that appear to meet the criteria of the survey.  These resources include farmsteads, churches, schools, and agriculture-related buildings, with the overwhelming majority being farmsteads or farm complexes that contain resources that are believed to range in age from the 1860s to the 1920s.  All of these resources have been photographed and mapped and a complete inventory of these resources is appended at the end of this report.  Of these resources, nine individual buildings or building complexes appear to be eligible for listing in the NRHP and are listed near the end of this report.  The reconnaissance survey phase of the project was then followed by the second phase, the intensive survey, which was completed in early August of 2006.  This phase consisted of an intensive research effort that was designed to generate an overview of the history of the Town, an overview of those historic themes that are most closely associated with this history, and basic historic information about a select group of the resources that were identified in the reconnaissance survey.