Exuberant 1880s houses like this one put the exclamation point on forty years of growth in Eau Claire. Addison Cutter was not a lumberman, but the boom made him rich all the same. Beginning in 1870, he sold shoes for lumberjacks, so his fortunes rose as the legions of lumberjacks grew. His showpiece Queen Anne house boasts an elegant entrance porch with a pediment and wagon-wheel spindlework and, beside it, an elliptical veranda with a lattice balustrade and spindle frieze. An eyebrow dormer peeks from the steeply pitched, side-gabled roof. But what especially distinguishes the house is a soaring three-and-a-half-story pavilion, with siding and shingling of various textures and an arcaded balcony with a lattice-and-spindle balustrade and beaded posts.
This neighborhood, the Third Ward, was Eau Claire’s most prestigious during the boom, home to lumber barons and other civic and business leaders. Many of their elaborate residences have been demolished or converted to apartments, largely due to the growth of the nearby University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (originally a state normal school, opened in 1916). But the survivors also include the David Drummond House (1888; 1310 State Street), whose towering pavilion rivals Cutter’s; the William Galloway House (1889; 213 Oakwood Place), a classical gem; and the George Winslow House (1894–1895; 210 Oakwood), a George Barber pattern-book design with a curvilinear corner chimney.