Contact: Kendall Poltzer
kendall.poltzer@wisconsinhistory.org
June 9, 2023
De Pere, Brown County, WI. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Agnes and Ruth Lenfestey Mark House on the State Register of Historic Places.
The Agnes and Ruth Lenfestey Mark House is one of only two architect-designed Modern Movement single-family residences in the city of De Pere in the 1950s and early 1960s. The clients were 88-year-old Mrs. Agnes Hurlbut Lenfestey and her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Lenfestey Mark, who was then sharing a home with her mother. By 1962, both women had lost their husbands, but the Hurlbut and Lenfestey families were socially prominent ones and both women were still active in social and civic circles in both De Pere and Green Bay.
John C. Tilleman, a young Green Bay architect who had opened his own practice in Green Bay, designed the house in 1963. The large site allowed for a rectilinear plan, front-gable roof main block that contained a living room, dining room, kitchen, den, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Placed next to the house was a two-car gable-roofed garage of similar design that was connected to the house by a covered breezeway. Both the house and garage were clad in a light grey concrete brick that was manufactured by the F. Hurlbut Company of Green Bay, which was owned by family members. The design of the house, with its shallow-pitched roofs, broad transom lights in the gable ends, and exposed beam ends, reflects the influence of California houses of the 1950s that were pioneered by architects working for developer Joseph Eichler; it is the only house of this type in De Pere.
The State Register is Wisconsin’s official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin’s heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.
Additional information for the Agnes and Ruth Lenfestey Mark House is available at
To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit: www.wisconsinhistory.org.
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.
