Wade House

Before getting into our trip to Wade House, let me tell you how surprised I've been to see the large number of blog posts to come out of our 9 day vacation to NE Wisconsin.

There truly are a lot of pretty cool things to see and do!

One of the 12 Wisconsin Historic Sites or Museums - it's half-way between Sheboygan and Fond Du Lac.

And long before road trip vacations, the Wade House took advantage of its location to accommodate dusty and tired travelers.

Sylvanus and Betsey Wade weren't thinking about 21st Century tourists when they put roots here in 1844, four years before statehood.  The area was nearly continuous forest and very much wilderness on either side of a much-used wagon trail.

The Wades wanted to establish a community.  A river offered a power source for a mill.  Very quickly, the Wades had a bustling business with designs on expansion.

That's the Wade House, left, A taproom on the first floor served whiskey and was a place for cigars as men talked politics and current events.  Women and children had a sitting room across the hall; in those days entertainment was not a co-ed activity.

Boom times for Greenbush flamed out in ten years.  As the Civil War raged to the south, railroads were altering the landscape.  Railroad tracks could ensure a town's future, or keep them from making it big.

The Wades lost their bid to bring the trains to town, and Greenbush remains a sleepy hamlet.

The hotel shut down in 1910.  Members of the Wade family continued to live there until 1941 when it was sold.

Thankfully, much of the furniture was kept and restoration efforts got a big boost when members of the Kohler family (yes, the Kohler plumbing family - who settled in the area) bought it and returned its splendor.

In 1853, the family gave the home and surrounding property to the State of Wisconsin as its second Historic site.

Beside the bar on one side of the house, a sitting room on the other, the main floor holds the dining room, pantry, and kitchen.  I was intrigued by the indoor plumbing - in this case a well inside the walls so trips outside weren't necessary to get fresh water.

Upstairs is a large room which hosted local trials, meetings, and dances.  Small (by our standards) rooms offered lodging to travelers.  The rooms are the size of current walk-in closets with enough space for a bed, dresser, and chair.  For a little less cash, travelers could sleep on the floor of the main space.


Larger rooms for long term guests were on the second floor and family members (10 total in the Wade household) lived near the back.


Today, volunteers in period dress tell the story of this rural inn in the early days of statehood and live the life as well.  A typical 1850s garden is raised outside and the vegetables are used for staff lunches.

The Wade House still enjoys a great location in east Wisconsin - stop in, find a seat in a horse pulled coach and travel back in time.