Wright House Hotel - 1869 - Lancaster, Wisconsin - Dated Architectural Structures Multifarious on Waymarking.com

My commentary: I love confusing National Register Applications. I am not sure why the three story and the story buildings are one building, but I didn't do the writeup. I photographed these as separate buildings, as the architecture suggests separate buildings. The writeup states that the three-story and the two-story buildings are together. Near the corner of Madison and Maple, there is a plaque that gives information regarding dates for the Hotel. Text is later in the waymark.

Historic Name	Address	Date of Construction	Architectural Style
Wright House Hotel	101-121 North Madison Street	1868-1869/1883	Commercial Vernacular
The three-story-tall Commercial Vernacular form Wright House Hotel was completed in 1869 and it was Lancaster's most imposing building at that time. It was built as a hotel and features a three-story rectilinear plan main block that comprises the southwest corner of the city block on which it is located. This brick-clad building rests on a stone foundation. The N. Madison St. elevation of the building is five-bays-wide and symmetrical in design and has a centered entrance door in the first story of its middle bay. The right-hand (east) three bays of the first story of the seven-bay-wide E. Maple Street side elevation are given over to a deeply inset entrance that is flanked on its right by a two-bay-wide storefront that originally lit the hotel's restaurant. All of the bays on these two elevations are separated from one another by three-story-tall pilaster strips and both elevations are crowned by tall corbelled brick cornices. In addition, all the flat-arched window openings in these bays have dressed stone sills and lintels, but the original two-over-two-light double hung wood sash windows that filled them was replaced with one-over-one-light examples early in the twentieth century. Attached to the north-facing side elevation of this building's main block is a two-story-tall eight-baywide rectilinear plan Commercial Vernacular form wing that fronts onto N. Madison St. This wing was built in 1883 and it too is clad in brick and rests on a stone foundation. The main facade faces west onto N. Madison St. and the right (south) half of its first story consists of a now altered storefront that originally served the hotel's sample room. Crowning the facade is a corbelled brick cornice that is identical to the one found on the three-story main block. The facade retains its original two-over-two light windows in its second story. This two-part building was built on the site of the Banfill House, a frame two-story building that was one of Lancaster's first hotels. The original owner of the present building was John Wright, who first leased it to Fred Phelps. Phelps called the hotel the Phelps House and it was known by this name until Wright finally took it over and ran it himself, renaming it the Wright House. Although the original storefronts have now been altered and the windows on the main block have been replaced with later ones, the building retains a highly intact appearance today, as is confirmed by comparison with numerous extant historic photographs.

- National Register Application

- Marker Text

Year built or dedicated as indicated on the structure or plaque: 1869 Full Inscription (unless noted above): See long description. Website (if available): [Web Link]

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