West Bay Club: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Cultural Landscapes Program. 2020. West Bay Club: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 500308. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park System. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: (Adapted from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form) The West Bay Club is a historic vernacular landscape located in a 5 acre small clearing on the northwest side of Sand Island’s southern shore. Sand Island, in Bayfield County, Wisconsin, is approximately 2,860 acres and part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (APIS) on the south shore of Lake Superior. The West Bay Club, significant under Criteria A and C, exemplifies early 20th century Rustic architecture, as designed by Charles Buechner and Henry Orth, as well as trends in outdoor recreation in Wisconsin. In the earlier 19th century, only the wealthy had the time and money required for leisure travel and to create Great Camps, but later Wisconsin vacationers realized that they too could enjoy private Great Camp experiences by pooling their resources. Constructed in 1913 as a private vacation space to be used by several families, with a period of significance from 1913-1954, the West Bay Club consisted of several structures. These include a Rustic style lodge constructed of logs; a reverse-framed Rustic style ice house; a wood-frame tool shed in poor condition; remnants of a road system which included a bridge, that linked West Bay to the Sand Island community; a collapsed water tower; the ruins of two outbuildings and the submerged piers and footings of a boat dock. Despite some deterioration of the main building, the West Bay Club retains a high level of historic integrity in all seven aspects: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The condition of the West Bay Club landscape is considered fair based on the evidence of minor disturbances and deterioration listed on the National Register of Historic Places Form (2015).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2020-09-09
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park System
- Units
- APIS , MWR
- Keywords
- apple trees, boat dock, Charles Buechner, Henry Orth, ice house, lodge, recreation, road system, rose bushes, rustic, Sand Island, tool shed, vernacular landscape, water tower, Wisconsin