"Wisconsin's Own"

The following photographs of the Havilah Babcock House appear courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society. They were among those taken by Zane Williams of Madison for the 2010 Wisconsin Historical Society Press publication, "Wisconsin's Own: Twenty Remarkable Homes." Further information on the photographer and the book are available through the above two links shown in red.

© Zane Williams 2010   

The Havilah Babcock House

While most commonly seen from the street, "Wisconsin's Own" authors, Louis Wasserman and Caren Connelly wanted the primary shot of the house to show its complete depth on the one acre site. Finding the right angle was a little tricky as an old growth oak tree stood in the middle of the circular drive. Then just weeks before the scheduled shoot, the tree conveniently died - or so it seemed. In the process getting it down the tree service man nearly cut his hand off, and when the stump was finally dug and covered, the new sod got chewed up by the lawn mower. In the end we covered the hole with grass dug up from an unseen corner of the yard. Last summer in memory of Mom and Dad we planted a clustered pair of native Wisconsin shagbark hickories in place of the oak.

 

© Zane Williams 2010                          

The Front Hall

Photographer Zane Williams somehow infused the hall with light that does not otherwise come naturally to houses of this era. My contribution was to rustle up some indirect lighting so that the stained glass in the vestibule doors would be seen. What you see here is exactly the way my great-grandfather left it in 1905, when he went to a sanitarium in Winnetka, Illinois to rest and instead died of a heart attack.

© Zane Williams 2010   

The Library

Behind the more formal sitting room and parlor is the library and dining room, the two rooms used by the family on a daily basis. Here you see the fireplace tiles which Havilah Babcock told his children represented the profiles (from left to right) of Dante, Socrates and Lord Byron, which he used to illustrate the intellectual process of understanding the sacred and physical worlds.

© Zane Williams 2010                          

From the Library to the Dining Room

In this picture you can appreciate the narrowness of life even in a large home. The parlor and sitting room at the front of the house were used only on formal occasions and were more public in nature. The pantries and kitchen in back were the business end of the house and generally left untraversed until the addition of a back porch made it possible to dine overlooking the gardens in summer.

© Zane Williams 2010   

The Dining Room

Dining together as a family in this room was something my great-grandfather - and in their turn my great aunts - took very seriously, meals being inevitably orchestrated with great formality. It was in this room in 1962 where I was presented with a little silver pitcher of ketchup to accompany my fried chicken, called for by my Great-Aunt Betty using the buzzer under the carpet near chair, always closest to the kitchen to the right. Shown here in its smallest setting, thirteen leaves extend the table into the bay and almost into the library. The silver pitcher remains where it was always kept in the sideboard.

© Zane Williams 2010   

The Guest Bedroom

The house was designed to accommodate long term guests who often stayed for months at a time. This one still retains its original carpet, sewn together in strips with a border running along the walls. The rooms appears warm and inviting in the photograph, but is in fact stone cold year round. Green Bay psychic Lori Manns attributes this to the fireplace being a "spirit portal," through which she and others maintain is an access point from this world to the next. In our case the reports are of wanting to play.

© Zane Williams 2010   

The Girls' Room

This room was originally shared by my grandmother and her sister Nell. When they went off to college it became my Great Aunt Betty's room. It appears here much as it did when she died in 1972. The walls were originally painted pink, and the room's other furnishings art nouveau, a style which she favored. With time, however, she thought the beige appointments more stylish and suitable to a woman of her more advanced age.