Tank Cottage is located within
Heritage Hill State Historical Park in
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...
. It 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 ...
in 1970 and may be the oldest building in Wisconsin.
History
French-Canadian fur trader Joseph Roi built the cottage on the
Fox River sometime between 1776 and 1803. He used the
pièce-sur-pièce à coulisse technique common in French-Canadian buildings of the time. In 1805, Roi sold the cottage to Jacques Porlier, an ally of the British. During the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
, the building served as a local headquarters for the British. After the war, Porlier swore allegiance to the United States and in 1820 became chief justice of the
Brown County court of the
Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit ...
.
In 1850, Norwegian
Moravian missionary Nils Otto Tank
Nils Otto Tank (March 11, 1800 – May 4, 1864) was a Norwegian born, Moravian Church missionary and teacher. He was a pioneer settler in Wisconsin.
Background
Nils Otto Tank was born near Halden in Østfold, Norway. He was the son of a wealthy ...
purchased the cottage and large tract of land along the Fox River. His wife, Caroline van der Meulin, covered the pièce-sur-pièce à coulisse work with
clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...
and lived there until her death in 1891. In 1908, the cottage was in danger of demolition as the city became more industrial, so it was moved from its original location on 8th Street along the river to Tank Park.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and in 1976 moved to its current location in Heritage Hill State Historical Park to serve as a museum.
See also
*
List of the oldest buildings in Wisconsin
References
Informational notes
Citations
{{commons category, Tank Cottage
Museums in Brown County, Wisconsin
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
Buildings and structures in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Houses in Brown County, Wisconsin
National Register of Historic Places in Brown County, Wisconsin
Houses completed in the 19th century