The Albrecht C. Ringling House is a historic house at 623 Broadway in

Baraboo, Wisconsin Baraboo ( ) is the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States, located along the Baraboo River. The population was 12,556 at the 2020 census. The most populous city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo micropo ...

. The house was built in 1906 for Albrecht C. Ringling, the eldest of the Ringling brothers, and his wife Louise. By the time of the house's construction, the

Ringling Brothers Circus Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a Germ ...

was among the largest in the country, and it would acquire the Barnum and Bailey Circus the following year. The two-and-a-half story mansion has a

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

design and was built using

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Ty ...

quarried at

Port Wing, Wisconsin Port Wing (also Portwing) is an unincorporated census-designated place in the town of Port Wing, Bayfield County, Wisconsin, United States. The community is along Wisconsin Highway 13 and Bayfield County Highway A. It is west of Bayfield. The ...

. The house's design features a wraparound front porch topped by a square tower at the northeast corner, a porte-cochere on one side, and a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

interrupted by multiple

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s. The interior decoration includes oak and mahogany woodwork, a marble fireplace, and a large painted landscape. Baraboo's

Elks lodge The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), commonly known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks, is an American fraternal order and charitable organization founded in 1868 in New York City. Originally established as a social club for m ...

bought the house from Ringling's family in 1936 and used it as a clubhouse for several decades; it is currently a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

and

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

. The house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on May 17, 1976.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Sauk County, Wisconsin Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Houses completed in 1906 Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Wisconsin Baraboo, Wisconsin Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Historic house museums in Wisconsin 1906 establishments in Wisconsin Museums in Sauk County, Wisconsin {{Wisconsin-NRHP-stub