Gottlieb’s View, as this Wisconsin farmhouse is affectionately referred to as, wasn’t at all times so eye-catching.
Only a couple a long time in the past the house was falling aside. A bit of tin roof close to the distinctive cupola was ripped off, there was no insulation, electrical energy was minimal and, for instance the plumbing woes, the kitchen sink drained straight into the yard.
Decided to resurrect the Italianate-style farmhouse constructed by his great-grandfather, Gottlieb Stanelle, within the Eighteen Eighties, Stanelle purchased the house in 1999 and has been painstakingly renovating it ever since in partnership together with his spouse, Nancy. Inside work is predicted to be accomplished this spring, with the remaining exterior work probably completed “not till the day after I die,” Jim stated with fun.
Jim, 70, stated the renovation venture is so significant as a result of tons of upon tons of of descendants of Gottlieb and his spouse, Beata, can hint their roots again to this residence close to Brillion in rural Calumet County.
“There are days I simply want it was achieved because it’s been so lengthy now,” he stated. “However quite a lot of days it’s simply cool to work on issues and know {that a} nail put in it may need been hammered in when my great-grandfather was within the room at that second. In order that historical past is sweet to think about.”
“I’ve studied quite a lot of our household historical past due to this residence,” he added. “It’s actually neat and lots of people within the household suppose it’s nice. It simply feels good to be the caretaker. I really feel actually proud that Nancy and I’ve made it into one thing that’s good. I’ve at all times felt this was a particular home.”
Along with the 22-room farmhouse, the couple’s 6-acre property features a 115-year-old barn, a small Frontenac grape winery began 9 years in the past, a granary courting again a long time, and the remnants of a stone summer season kitchen from the late 1800s.
“I’m blissful and proud to work with my husband to remodel this residence to a spot the place household can go to and recollections could be made,” Nancy stated. “I’m glad he took the large problem of restoring it. Those that grew up in it and are nonetheless with us contemplate it a blessing. I’m positive Gottlieb and Beata are trying down with nice delight.”
The house
Gottlieb emigrated from Germany in 1862 and initially settled in Waukesha, the place he spent three years working for a farmer. He saved his earnings and in 1865 acquired 100 acres close to Brillion by the Morrill Land Grant, paying $1.25 per acre.
The Stanelle household ultimately accomplished development of the house in 1887, which Jim ascertained from a date put up close to a second-floor door body in addition to archived information.
The Italianate-style farmhouse, a preferred design alternative for that period, was constructed primarily of wooden harvested from timber on the property. The close by Niagara Escarpment offered supplies for the flagstone basis.
Though the sage inexperienced residence options two main dwelling tales, it might be considered a four-story residence due to the spacious attic and 8-foot-by-8-foot cupola atop the residence. The view from that eye-catching room impressed the property identify, Gottlieb’s View.
“Individuals see the house, they usually bear in mind it,” Jim stated. “We don’t want to provide out our handle. We simply inform individuals, ‘It’s the house with the cupola, you’ll comprehend it while you see it.’”
The five-bedroom farmhouse contains 49 home windows, 39 doorways and an east wing.
The renovation
Jim grew up throughout the road from the farmhouse and was well-versed within the household’s historical past of dairy farming, however he didn’t have an curiosity in farming after highschool.
He earned a level from UW-Platteville, returned to the Brillion space and labored for 11 years as a co-op department supervisor. He ultimately resumed his training at Kansas State College, pursuing a grasp’s diploma in agronomy with an emphasis in seed expertise. For a lot of the previous quarter century he has traveled ceaselessly whereas serving as an agricultural marketing consultant for worldwide growth tasks in additional than 20 international locations.
Over time, Jim moved to Kewaunee, which is the place he was dwelling in 1999 when he purchased the farmhouse from his brother. Jim initially bought 4 acres and later added two extra.
“The house was just about authentic on the time I purchased it,” Jim stated, noting 4 rooms had authentic wallpaper and one other 4 rooms featured portray and stenciling from flooring to ceiling.
“My grandfather died in 1959 and my aunt lived right here till the Nineteen Nineties. And hardly something had ever been achieved to the home. After my dad and mom died in a automotive accident and my brother received the farm, he started doing different issues and sooner or later a storm got here by and blew off a complete part of the outdated tin roof they placed on within the Nineteen Forties.
“I occurred to name my brother after that, and he requested if I needed to purchase the home and I stated positive. It wasn’t in fine condition. I’ve been engaged on it ever since that day.”
Jim and his first spouse started by including insulation and enclosing the three,300-square-foot home to make it inhabitable. She handed away not lengthy thereafter. Jim later met Nancy, and the couple wed in 2007. He credit Nancy for “an incredible job” incorporating design concepts.
“The house is a mix of Nancy’s imaginative and prescient for it and my view of how the home had been prior to now,” Jim stated. “Nancy and I’ve achieved 80-90% of the work right here. We’re ending up the primary entryway that goes upstairs so as soon as that’s achieved, hopefully by spring, the entire dwelling space of the home can be achieved, which solely took 20-some years.”
The house is properly renovated, however Jim stated “it’s not ornate or elaborate like some is likely to be. We wish to name it ‘fancy farmhouse,’ as a result of it’s good however not tremendous elaborate.”
The couple have added fashionable facilities (insulation, for starters) whereas incorporating historic gadgets. Jim famous that the parlor options three items of furnishings authentic to the house, and a child grand piano from Nancy’s grandfather is within the parlor as nicely.
“It’s good having items from each of our households right here,” Jim stated. “Numerous different elements of our home are harking back to what it might have been like right here — a sense for what it was like. And a few rooms aren’t fairly like that. Now we have an eclectic group of rooms. Hopefully, all of them match collectively and look good.”
The barn
East of the farmhouse is a former dairy barn inbuilt 1906 that had 12 stalls.
“I’ve a board from the barn that my grandfather wrote on in 1906, in order that’s how we all know when it was constructed,” Jim stated.
A second barn, inbuilt 1893, was positioned behind the present barn however was in poor situation and wanted to be dismantled a couple of dozen years in the past.
Dairy farming on the Stanelle property ended within the Fifties, Jim stated.
“My grandfather (Harry) died in 1959, and I bear in mind him with a couple of head of cattle in that barn,” Jim stated. “My grandfather would go within the barn once we had been threshing and he’d fork the straw round. He was in his 80s and he was nonetheless doing that.”
Jim stated the barn is structurally OK, though he and Nancy are keeping track of it. A small twister swept by the realm six or seven years in the past, flattening two neighbors’ barns and simply lacking the Stanelle barn.
“After that I attempted to open the door on the barn and it was actually tight as a result of the winds shifted the constructing,” he stated. “But it surely’s nonetheless standing.”
The Stanelles additionally utilized a couple of dozen horses again within the days of their dairy farming operation.
“My father (Bert) instructed me that my grandfather had a pair of white horses that he used to commute to church, as a result of he needed to indicate off,” Jim stated with a chuckle.
The winery
Upon starting renovations, Jim stated the plan initially referred to as for establishing a mattress and breakfast.
“We thought we wanted one thing extra than simply farm fields round us to attract individuals,” he stated. “So we thought, what a couple of winery? So in 2012 we planted 27 vines, and the subsequent yr we planted some extra, and now we now have 144 vines. It seems we ended up with a winery however no mattress and breakfast.”
The quarter-acre operation is named The Vineyards at Gottlieb’s View. The couple’s Frontenac grapes, a superb match for this local weather, are bought to Wisconsin wineries. Harvests have been performed yearly since 2014, with relations and pals serving to with the hassle.
“For 1 / 4 acre, the labor on the winery isn’t dangerous in any respect,” Jim stated. “We’re comfy with the dimensions of the winery proper now. I’m not getting any youthful, so I don’t suppose we’ll be increasing it.”
Jim stated he isn’t positive what the long run holds for the property.
“Nancy and I are each very wholesome and blissful and wish to be right here for some time,” he stated, “however we don’t have anybody within the rapid household, presently, who has expressed an curiosity in shopping for the home … and that’s unhappy to me.
“It’s nonetheless an awesome place for our grandkids to run round in proper now. They go up one among our stairways and down the opposite stairway and it’s enjoyable.”
Jim stated he and Nancy are proud to have performed a major function within the historical past of the Stanelle property. Gottlieb handed away in 1923 on the age of 89, however his legacy lives on.
“One of many issues I’m most pleased with since getting our sesquicentennial honor, it actually made me suppose this has been a farming course of for thus lengthy,” Jim stated. “I have a look at the winery as an extension of what my great-grandfather began. We’re nonetheless doing farming, rising issues, however otherwise. And I’m pleased with that.”
