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| 7/19/2010 2:06:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Delavan Historical Society President Patti Marsicano talks with Bud Tweed, of Delavan, in the dining room of the Phillips-LaBar house at 134 Sixth St. The house was the first home A.H. Allyn purchased in the city. He traded the home to Anna Mary Mabie Phillips after building the Allyn Mansion, and Phillips’ daughter, Mamie Mabie, and her husband, Daniel LaBar, took over the home in 1907. (Michael S. Hoey photo) |
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Visitors tour New York Yankee's restored Delavan homes
Proceeds to benefit city’s oldest remaining structure
MICHAEL S. HOEY
Correspondent
When Chicago contractor John Cangelosi saw the Sixth Street home of New York Yankee Alexander Allyn was being sold, he saw his chance to return the historic home to its original glory.
"I had been looking at it for a number of years admiring it," said Cangelosi, who hosted tours of the home Saturday and Sunday. "When I saw the 'for sale' sign, it became my quest."
The tours of A.H. Allyn's first home at 134 Sixth St., known to many as the Phillips-LaBar House, and the Allyn Mansion at 511 E. Walworth Ave. raised money to help save the Israel Stowell Temperance House, which was donated to the Delavan Historical Society.
Allyn Mansion co-owner Ron Markwell hosted tours of the home Allyn built on Walworth Avenue in 1885 before trading the Sixth Street home to Anna Mary Mabie Phillips, of the Mabie Circus family.
Allyn moved to the Sixth Street home after living several years on land around Delavan Lake. Mamie Mabie, the daughter of Anna Mary Mabie Phillips, married Daniel LaBar and took over the house in 1907.
The house was divided into four apartments in the early 1950s after the death of Mamie LaBar. It stayed that way until Cangelosi bought the house about seven years ago. Cangelosi, who has restored several other old buildings in his 29 years in the construction business, spent about three years of part-time work restoring it.
The tours provided the public the first opportunity to see what Cangelosi has accomplished.
"The work John has done has been amazing," said former City of Delavan Alderman Ryan Schroeder, a member of the Historical Society who helped with the Phillips-LaBar House tours on Sunday.
"He has come in and done a fabulous job," he said. "He has restored other buildings, but this is the crown jewel of what he has fixed up."
TEMPERANCE HOUSE FIX
For $10 each, visitors got an inside look at the 19th century homes. More than 300 people toured the houses, raising $3,000 for the Temperance House.
Built in 1840, the Walworth Avenue structure is the oldest temperance house known to exist in Wisconsin. The building was facing a raze order by the city due to the poor repair the structure had fallen into over the years. The building had housed hundreds of books in recent years adding to the concern about the structure becoming a fire hazard.
Efforts to save the building have prevented it from being razed to this point. A group that has been functioning as a sub-committee of the Delavan Historical Society has been working to raise money to save the building and get an assessment done that will help determine what work the building needs and what uses it can serve if restored.
Owner Ed Chesko donated the building to the Historical Society, and several local businesses have donated their time and services to help save it.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY SITE?
Some Temperance House supporters asked Cangelosi about purchasing the house or accepting it as a donation, but Cangelosi declined. He said he already owns and is working on two buildings in the city - the Hetzel Mill on Richmond Road by the Mill Pond in addition to the Phillips-LaBar House. He said the building's best destiny would be to become the new home of the Historical Society.
Historical Society President Patti Marsicano said the Historical Society is certainly interested in the idea but said it is too early in the process to make firm plans. She said the Women's Christian Temperance Union is also interested in putting a museum at the site.
Marsicano said the structure is naturally divided into three distinct sections. The Historical Society and the museum could occupy two and some sort of office or shop that can generate income through its lease for the building could occupy the third section.
"We would be our own on-site landlords, be close to the downtown, and close to the tourists," she said about the location. She said the oldest building in Delavan is a fitting site for the Historical Society.
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