HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 5 Morgan House MarkerJohn R. Morgan Residence
This Queen Anne style home was built in 1884 for John R. Morgan (1833-1906), Eleanor
(Hughes) Morgan (1832-1909) and their three children. John and his brother, Richard, arrived in
Oshkosh in 1855 and established one of Oshkosh’s earliest and prosperous saw mills, Morgan
Brothers & Company. The mill fell victim to financial hardship several times as a result of fires;
the fire of 1875 that devastated North Main Street and immediate area started in the Morgan
lumber yard. Despite setbacks, the Morgans’ business went on to be one of the leading
Oshkosh saw mills into the 20th century.
To reflect the family’s new-found success and wealth, John hired local contractors Adam Bell
and Edwin Cole to design and build him this home. The Queen Anne style was popular in post-
Civil War America. The ornately decorated house, with 1880’s modern conveniences, cost
approximately $12,000 to build at that time. After John and Eleanor Morgan died, the house was
owned for a brief time by their children but soon sold outside of the family. Constance Misky
bought the home in the 1940’s and operated her cosmetology school and salon on the first floor
and lived on the second floor until. The Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological
Society acquired the home from Misky through bequest and purchase in 1987 and began an
extensive effort to restore original features of the home. The structure has since been restored
and furnished to reflect how a family of the Morgan’s social status lived in late nineteenth-
century Oshkosh. The Morgan House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983.