It’s Friday. You walk through the doors of Town Square with a package of fresh vegetables and flowers that you purchased directly from growers at The Market on the Town Square lawn…

You pause in the lobby to see the work of this month’s featured Lobby Gallery artist…

Upstairs, the Green Lake Bird and Nature Club is meeting…

A group of giggling children pass by on their way to a the MakerSpace to work on a project…

Two young women are chatting on their way to yoga class…

Out back, on Mill Pond Terrace, people are relaxing at Town Square Tap, and talking about weekend plans and dressing up for this month’s Town Square Bingo.

At Town Square Community Center, you’ll find an incredible force for vibrancy, bringing our community together and providing events and programs that bring even more people into Green Lake.

The mission of Town Square Community Center is to enrich the lives of the Green Lake community members, family, and friends by providing cultural, social, recreational and educational opportunities for people of all ages, while preserving our treasured historic building.

Town Square is operated by Green Lake Renewal, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and is 100 percent community funded, with no tax dollars. All donations in support of Town Square are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Our History

In 2011, after more than a century occupying its gracious courthouse building at the center of Green Lake, the County of Green Lake moved to a new facility on the outskirts of the city. There were conversations. Ideas. Requests for proposal. What could be done with the now-abandoned structures? With a courthouse building on the National Register of Historic Places, an annex from the 1960s, and a jail/sheriff’s office added in the 1980s, the functionally-obsolete property would present a challenge to any developer.

In late 2011, several community members developed a plan to transform the property into a community center and approached the county. There was much hesitation. What if it doesn’t work? What if a better offer comes along? Should we just tear the buildings down?

More conversations. More requests for proposals. More ideas. Meanwhile, keeping the building was costing money month after month. Should the county just turn off the historic building’s utilities for the winter and hope for the best? The Town Square founders pleaded NO!

In early 2012, after a year of reviewing suggestions for the property, an ad-hoc committee set up by the City and County recommended the Town Square Community Center proposal as the most likely to succeed while benefiting the community.

On April 17, 2012, Green Lake County voted to sell the property to Town Square’s nonprofit organization for $1.00. And on May 12, 2012, the Green Lake County Clerk handed over the keys.

For the next three months, teams of volunteers removed old furnishings, tore up old carpeting, pried off plywood walls, painted, scrubbed and polished the buildings. Meanwhile, believers began to jump on board. And on August 11, 2012, Town Square opened its doors with a Yoga and Pilates Studio, a Lobby Art Gallery, the Lester Schwartz Gallery, a commercial kitchen business incubator, and the offices of the Green Lake Association.

Since that time, Town Square has grown exponentially each year, now offering a full range of programs and events, farm and artisan markets, a taproom, indoor and outdoor event spaces, fitness center, creative spaces, and more. It is also home to many of the community’s most active nonprofit organizations and clubs.

Town Square is truly the heart of our community. But, of course, we’ve just begun…

OUR HISTORIC BUILDING

A Statement of Historic Significance

Green Lake County Courthouse
From the National Register of Historic Places

Although modest in size and restrained in detail, the Green Lake County Courthouse employs an eclectic array of Neo-Classical elements, distinguished by a pedimented portico which dominates the front facade. Situated on a hill and surrounded by a landscaped “square,” the brick structure rises two stories from a raised basement and culminates in a low-pitched hip roof whose eave line is embellished with dentils and treated as a classical cornice. The carefully balanced composition is divided horizontally by pronounced belt courses and the fenestration is chastely symmetrical.

The first story is rusticated in a manner which suggests the masonry work of the Renaissance, with stylized voussoirs radiating outward from the flat-headed windows. More elaborately detailed windows on the second floor, with leaded fanlights, are surmounted by enriched rounded brick hoods with keystones. Above them, corbelled brick bands articulate the cornice.

But the centerpiece of the composition is the portico, two stories in height, supported by massive pillars, pilasters, and freestanding colossal Ionic columns above which rests a pediment with denticulated cornice and gable window. Sheltered by the portico, the central doorway is framed by sidelights and a fanlight. The same controlled classicism marks the side and rear elevations, with pedimented porches and symmetrically disposed windows.

Side wings, extending from the rear of the courthouse, maintain the same fenestration although the wings are crowned with an emphatic belt course at the cornice. 

Inside the courthouse, original wooden detail can be seen on the turned balusters which ornament the stairwells (including heavy carved newel posts), the door frames, baseboards and elsewhere. 

Significance:

Skillfully executed and carefully balanced, the Green Lake County Courthouse is one of the finest examples of early Neoclassical architecture in the county, as well as an outstanding visual landmark, reflecting both the exuberance and the orderly academicism of turn-of-the-century classical revival design. The imposing portico, symmetrical fenestration (including the embellished arched windows on the second floor), the division of the facade into horizontal layers (with a “rusticated” first story), and pronounced belt courses and cornices all contribute both a studied and monumental quality of the building. 

Designed by William Waters (1843-1917), the structure stands on a hill in the center of the city, surrounded by a landscaped square, dominating the small city of Green Lake. Waters, who submitted the designs in early 1899, was a prominent Oshkosh architect, whose previous commissions included designs for courthouses in Phillips, Wautoma and Waupaca as well as for the Wisconsin Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Dinos at Town Square?