In the Beginning

The Ellingboe house at 711 Lake Avenue West in Ladysmith, WI was purchased from the granddaughters of the Ellingboe family in May 2010 by Tony Ziesler for the purpose of establishing an art museum and gallery.

The house, a wood-framed building, was built in the early 1900's with an unusual feature--a brick garage.  The house and the garage withstood the tornado of 2002 although large trees were  uprooted and broken. A few years later, a broken water main flooded the basement, ruining the water heater.

Tony began the deconstruction process, removing siding, plaster lathe, old plumbing, and cleaning up dirt in the basement from the rubble foundation.  The front porch was found to be sliding off the block foundation and it has been removed to allow for new footings to be dug.

The current plan is to have the front porch house a shared office space in the lower level and a studio and/or Museum of Children's Picture Book Art in the upper level. The upper level above the main portion of the building will become a one bedroom apartment.

In July, a tree service was hired to take out trees and limbs that were decaying or dangerous. An excavating service changed the grading of the land to slope away from the garage and house.  Two handicap parking spaces were established during the excavations.  The main parking lot will be at the back of the lot and will hold six cars. Signage for the parking lot?--"Illegally parked frogs will be toad"

As of this writing, we are waiting for the footings for the front porch and for the last of the plaster lathe and old insulation to be removed.