# West Hill Residential Historic District

The West Hill Residential Historic District is a historic neighborhood on a bluff above the Chippewa River west of downtown Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It includes 163 contributing properties in a variety of styles, ranging from mansions of lumber executives built in the 1870s to ranch houses of the 1950s. In 2021 the district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The community of Chippewa Falls began when Jean Brunet led a crew up the Chippewa River into the wilderness in 1836 or 1837 to build a sawmill at the Falls. They managed to build a mill, and despite setbacks it grew into what by the 1880s was said to be "the largest sawmill under one roof in the world." The settlement around the mill grew into a city. After peaking in the 1880s, the sawmill business declined until the big mill finally closed in 1911, but by then other industries were under way: flour mills, a brewery, a woolen mill, shoe factories, a sugar beet factory, and others.$^{:40–42}$ For more background, see Chippewa Falls history.
Most of Chippewa Falls' early homes were mixed in with the businesses along Bridge Street, River Street, and Spring Street. In the 1870s when that area filled up and the needs of businesses began crowding homes out of the commercial area, neighborhoods filled in up "Catholic Hill" to the east and to the west of the business district. Part of that west side included stylish homes of the wealthy, and many of those homes remain relatively intact in what has become the West Hill Historic district.$^{:42}$
Styles of buildings in the district followed much the same progression as in other cities in Wisconsin. These are good examples of different styles in the district, listed roughly in the order built:
* The Sundet house at 524 W Central St is a 1.5-story bungalow with Prairie Style elements, built in 1915 yet very intact. The house has a complex roof, stucco-clad walls with abstracted pilasters at the front corners, and an open front porch. Prairie elements are the broad eaves that emphasize the horizontal and the banded windows. Christopher and Helena Sundet immigrated from Norway in the 1880s. He owned a music store at 318 N. Bridge St that "sold pianos, musical merchandise, and 'talking machines'."
* The Henry and Marie Brynelson house at 707 W. Columbia St was built in 1920, designed by Fallows, Huey & Macomber of Minneapolis. It combines Prairie Style's strong horizontal emphasis in the low hip roof, the wide eaves, and the string course and windows - with the Classical Revival portico with Tuscan columns supporting an entablature. Henry was the VP and manager of the Hand Made Shoe Co.
* The Julie Dierkin house at 724 W Dover St was built in 1923 - a 1.5 story Craftsman-style bungalow. Hallmarks of the Craftsman style in this building are the exposed rafter tails and the knee brackets under the eaves. This house also has a full-width front porch and a rectangular bay window. Its walls are clad in shingles.
* The John Myrman house at 704 W. Dover St is a 2-story American Foursquare-style house built in 1925. The hallmark of this style is the cube-shaped massing of the two-story house, usually with a hip roof. This house is clad in red brick, with a sun room on the side, and with a hip-roofed front porch supported by tapered square columns on brick bases.
* The Robert and Marguerite Roerick house at 520 W. Grand Ave. is a French Provincial-style house built in 1935. The house has an L-shaped floorplan, with a round tower inside the L. The arched front door opens into the tower. A large chimney is prominent, with pots at the top. The roof is complex and covered in tile. Walls are clad in rough stone except the second story of one wing which is half-timbered. Robert was a salesman and manager for the J.C. Penney store in town.
* The ranch house at 504 Superior, overlooking the corner of Superior and Willow streets, was built in 1951. It is one story with an L-shaped footprint, clad in brick with picture windows.