The Buildings

                  Brewery Creek

         Mineral Point Wisconsin

                                        

This is the Brewery Creek Inn building which brought us to Mineral Point. We were looking around to do something "completely different" from our past lives beginning with renovation the structure and building a business.

There was no heating, no plumbing, no wiring, no interior walls or stairways, no doors or windows and a dirt floor when we purchased it.  When George Cobb built his warehouse business headquarters in 1854 it was an object of civic pride.  Described in the newspaper as “…the most prominent building in the Village” it was emblematic of the boom days of early Statehood.  Later it had other uses, including a cold storage facility, an insulation factory and for many years Doc Shimming’s veterinary stable. 

The lead and zinc mines came and went, as did the railroad and the massive zinc works that used to be down stream on Brewery Creek.  By the 1970’s this “most prominent building” was a ruin.  The roof and third floor timbers rotted away, the massive beams collapsed and the north wall began to give way.  Several different owners over the years worked bit by bit to piece the building's framework back together.  

We began construction on Brewery Creek in July of 1997 and opened for business in June of 1998. 

Springside Cottage

 

We bought this cottage on Shake Rag Street in Mineral Point in 2002.  It started life 159 years earlier in 1843.  Back then when the Cornish miners were immigrating to Mineral Point a common practice was to build a house to live in.  After awhile as they prospered they would build a second house and rent or sell the first house to new immigrants.

This Shake Rag neighborhood became filled with little "rock" cottages like this.  By the 1930s many of them were in disrepair and falling down or being mined for stones to build WPA projects.  Enter Bob Neal and Edgar Hallum.  They were crazy enough to love the old buildings, to save a few, and create Pendarvis, which they eventually donated to the State of Wisconsin.  It is now a State Historic site open to the public May through October. 

At some point, Bob acquired what we call "The Springside Cottage".  He and Edgar set about renovating it and made it their guest house.   This piece of Mineral Point history is now under our care.  There is no other way to describe the feeling this house creates except "magic". 

A picture from the 1930s.  Rate $25 per couple per weekend.  Telephone # 4.

The historic Federal Springs( see above) surfaces in Shake Rag Alley and makes its way under Shake Rag Street flowing beside the cottage as it makes it way toward Brewery Creek..  So the spring flows beside the cottage.... hence Springside Cottage. .  

The Miners' Cottage, Shakerag Street

 

This cottage was donated to the State Historical Society about 1972.  It has been lived in continuously since then.  Brewery Creek began leasing it from the State and now you too can stay in this bit of history.  Above you can see two views of the Cottage.  The first is modern, the second was taken some time in the 1920's.  People have been living here since 1836 when miners fresh from Cornwall arrived in Mineral Point in pursuit of happiness.  That year, 1836:  Former President James Madison died; "Mr. $20 Bill", Andrew Jackson was our President; Texas declared independence; Spain recognized the independence of Mexico.