Architecture

Three centuries of evolving English styles accentuated by Wisconsin’s beauty

Nathan and Jessie Paine created an estate that reflects pride in their English heritage and Wisconsin home. In 1925, they commissioned Bryant Fleming, an architect from Ithaca, New York, to design a Tudor Revival-style country estate. Both Nathan and Jessie’s ancestors were English, which likely inspired their selection of this architectural style and much of the interior design and furnishings.

Architect Bryant Fleming varied the house’s interior and exterior architectural features, such as arches, doorways, columns, window panes, and chimney stacks, to give it the appearance of being built over three centuries in evolving English styles. Much of the estate’s architecture, décor, artworks, and landscaping derives from English country houses while utilizing and accentuating the natural resources and beauty of Wisconsin.

Nathan Paine’s Influence

Mr. Paine played an instrumental role in most details of the estate’s design, décor, and landscaping. He had a keen sense for quality in materials and craftsmanship and acquired the finest domestic stone and wood for the main house. Nearly all of the stonework is Kasota limestone, quarried in Minnesota. In areas inside the house where the limestone is polished, it has a sheen resembling marble. The interior woodwork, mostly of oak and walnut, benefited from Mr. Paine’s profound appreciation for lumber and craftsmanship. Although the mansion was designed to look centuries old, it is in fact a thoroughly modern structure. Beneath the limestone and wooden beams, a steel and concrete substructure renders the building fireproof, which Mr. Paine felt was vitally important.

Designing and Furnishing the Interior

The furnishings on the first floor were carefully chosen by Nathan and Jessie with the direction of decorator Phelps Jewett. Because Mr. Paine believed in the quality of the craftsmanship of his time, many of the furnishings are reproductions he commissioned specifically for this house. Their styles mimic various historical periods; some pieces are even upholstered in antique textiles to further the illusion of age. The second floor rooms were not completed during Mr. Paine’s lifetime and only partially finished during Mrs. Paine’s. When the museum first opened, these rooms were not on view. They have been completed or modified over the years according to the Paine’s original blueprints and designs, as well as to display Paine family heirlooms.

Furniture and artwork displayed in the Great Hall. — Phil Weston

The stair hall of the Paine mansion. — Phil Weston

For Living and Sharing

From the beginning, the Paines’ ultimate goal was to design an estate showcasing exceptional architecture, furnishings, art, and natural beauty that would eventually be open to the public for educational and cultural purposes. Although they never lived in the mansion, it was designed to first serve as Nathan and Jessie’s home, thus the interiors reflect the traditions of their time. First floor rooms were designed to impress and entertain visitors, and included an area open to the public as an art gallery. Upper floors were reserved for private family activities and sleeping rooms, typically closed to all but the closest friends and family. Families of the Paines’ stature also would have employed live-in servants and accommodated them in simply designed, utilitarian parts of the house. Public, private, and service areas are all found in the Paine mansion.

The façade of the Paine mansion in summertime, with two planters and blooming pink and white flowers.

Ken Cravillion

A 2018 art exhibition “Masterpieces of the Valley” is displayed in the Main Gallery

Ken Cravillion

The 2020 exhibition Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau on view in the Salon Gallery.

Ken Cravillion

The Library features a plaster ceiling decorated in rose and unvarnished, walnut paneling.

Phil Weston

The Dining Room features ornate floral designs and walnut paneling.

Phil Weston

The Breakfast Room features a custom-made dining set and tinted glass panes in its many windows.

Phil Weston

The Grand Staircase at the Paine mansion.

Phil Weston

Mr. Paine’s Office features oak paneling, carved cornices, and patterned leaded glass windows.

Phil Weston

The Ladies Reception Room with rose-tinted walls, Bohemian glass fixtures, and French influences.

Phil Weston

The Great Hall features an alcove on the right, large limestone fireplace, and 18-foot ceilings.

Phil Weston

The Guest Bedroom features a four-poster canopy bed, light turquoise walls, and a marble fireplace.

Phil Weston

The Belter Sitting Room features exquisite concave-backed furniture with green velvet.

Phil Weston

The Master Bedroom reflects an English Regency and French Empire styles, with two twin beds, mauve silk taffeta and antique French textiles.

Phil Weston

Mrs. Paine’s Dressing Room, with walnut paneling and turquoise furniture.

Phil Weston

The Helen Farnsworth Mears Gallery at the Paine mansion.

Phil Weston

The Gothic Gallery at the Paine mansion.

Sherry Nedens

The Studio, featuring couches, chairs and tables, and a fireplace.

Phil Weston

The Tudor-style Carriage House with historic garage doors and an outdoor staircase to the second floor.

Findorff

The Conservatory in the evening time, featuring tall windows overlooking the courtyard and Formal Garden.

Phil Weston

The Limousine Garage features brick and wood accents, with trees on either side.

Eric Reischl

The Tudor-style Courtyard Garage in early spring.

Eric Reischl

The Garden Garage, pictured in the evening, is made of brick and has two garage doors and three windows.

Phil Weston

The Mansion

Designed by architect Bryant Fleming, the Paine mansion is a 1920’s Tudor Revival-style house inspired by English country estates. Fleming varied the house’s interior and exterior architectural features to give it the appearance of being built over three centuries in evolving English styles.

Main Gallery

Nathan and Jessie Paine always intended their estate to be open to the public. This large gallery was designed to showcase their art collection. Its location and entranceway would have allowed the public to visit while the Paines occupied other parts of the house. Today it is used as the main gallery, presenting changing art exhibitions throughout the year.

Salon Gallery

Most large country houses included sitting or dining rooms for the house’s staff. The Paine’s planned for this room to serve that purpose. It’s currently used as another art gallery.

Library

The impressive stone, wood, and plaster architectural features of this room were influenced by England’s Jacobean period (1660-1688). The rose, a focal point in the plaster ceiling decoration, was a symbol of the English Tudor family, and is a decorative motif employed throughout the estate. The wood paneling is walnut. Like much of the mansion’s woodwork, the Paines left it unvarnished to highlight its natural beauty.

Dining Room

In the formal Dining Room, walnut paneling, stately portraits, and an elaborately carved boxwood and pine swag over the fireplace indicate the Georgian period (1714-1837) – considered the “golden age” of English country houses – provided the stylistic influence. The ceiling features an ornate, symmetrical floral design carved in plaster, while the marble columns feature three different polishes from top to bottom.

Breakfast Room

With an early 20th-century American influence, Mr. Paine envisioned the Breakfast Room to be an enclosed porch linking the outside landscape and Wisconsin’s changing seasons with a garden-like interior, creating a setting that is less formal than other first floor rooms. The tinted glass panes in the windows, here and throughout the mansion, were intentionally created to look as if they were made hundreds of years ago, with varying bubbles, streaks, and color.

Stair Hall

The Stair Hall, with its magnificently hand-carved oak staircase, forms the central corridor of the house. Although this space does not represent one specific historical period, the staircase’s acorn and oak leaf motif was popular in the 1500s in England. The staircase was hand-carved in the Michigan workshop of Alois Lang, a Bavarian-born master craftsman.

Mr. Paine’s Office

Reflecting a Tudor-Elizabethan period (1485-1603) influence characterized by its oak paneling, carved cornices, and patterned leaded glass windows, this room was originally planned to be the office of Nathan Paine. It features dentil molding and a hand-carved rose and leaf motif that does not appear anywhere else in the home. The room also demonstrates Nathan’s ingenuity, with generous closets and built-in storage cupboards concealed in the paneling.

Ladies Reception Room

Designed with the French Louis-Phillipe style (1830-1848) in mind, the Ladies Reception Room features rose tinted-plaster walls and a plaster cornice ornamented with acanthus leaves. The richly carved settee, chairs, and center table reflect the American taste for Rococo Revival parlor furnishings during this period. Although French styles predominate, the room’s impressive Georgian marble fireplace was originally part of an English estate. Located directly across from the original entrance, this elegant space is where Mrs. Paine would have received her guests, and ladies could have freshened up in the adjoining powder room.

Great Hall

The features of the Great Hall are strongly influenced by the Tudor and Elizabethan styles of the 16th century. As the “living room” of the house, it was designed as the central space for leisure and entertainment, with an 18-foot ceiling at its highest point. The linenfold paneling of the mezzanine was carved by local Paine Lumber Company craftsmen, while family crests were carved into the large Kasota limestone fireplace. The room also features an alcove with a bay window and arches.

Guest Bedroom

Located on the second floor, the Guest Bedroom displays Classical Revival and early Victorian influences (1830-1850). It features a plaster ceiling with a simple medallion trim of elongated acanthus leaves. This room displays many Paine and Kimberly family antiques and heirlooms, such as the white marble fireplace, four-poster canopy bed, and electrolier-gasolier chandelier that were brought from the house of Nathan’s grandfather, Edward L. Paine. The bedroom has an adjoining dressing room as well as a washroom completely surfaced in marble.

Belter Sitting Room

Initially planned as a second guest bedroom, Jessie Paine chose to instead create a Victorian period (1837-1900) parlor setting similar to what she remembered from her youth. The architecture is simple and understated for a mid-Victorian room. Jessie used pieces from the Edward L. Paine house including the Carara marble fireplace, the electrolier-gasolier chandelier, and the exquisitely carved furniture by John Henry Belter which was made in the 1850s. The current connecting passage between the Belter Room and Guest Bedroom would have been a dressing room with the accompanying marble bathroom.

Master Bedroom

This room was to serve as Nathan and Jessie’s master bedroom, but it was not completed during their lifetimes. Reflecting English Regency and French Empire styles (1795-1820) of the early nineteenth century and their Neoclassical influences, the room’s architectural details include dentil moulding, Ionic pilasters, and an expansive bay window overlooking the great lawn. The room features spaces for sleeping, reading, writing, and conversation. Museum staff consulted original drawings by the Paines’ decorator Phelps Jewett to furnish the room in a character fitting with the Paines’ preferences and plans. The draperies and bedding were handmade using silk taffeta and an antique French textile.

Mrs. Paine’s Dressing Room

Mrs. Paine’s Dressing Room, or boudoir, features French influences reminiscent of those in the Ladies Reception Room on the first floor. Located next to the master bedroom via the private hallway, the room is paneled in bleached walnut and features a carved border of acanthus flowers, with an impressive Oriel (bay) window overlooking the front lawn.

Helen Farnsworth Mears Gallery

On the second floor, the Helen Farnsworth Mears Gallery was originally the location of Mr. Paine’s dressing room and two master bathrooms. Mr. Paine’s master bathroom was made of black marble, while Mrs. Paine’s was a rosy beige marble with gold-plated hardware. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the three rooms were removed and the space was drastically changed to create gallery space and an entrance to what is now the Gothic Gallery. The Mears Gallery was named in honor of Helen Farnsworth Mears, an artist born in Oshkosh in 1871, and it displays a number of her sculptures.

Gothic Gallery

The Gothic Gallery was originally intended as an echo chamber for the pipes of an organ in the Great Hall located directly below. However, the space was extensively renovated to create gallery space for decorative objects in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Wisconsin artist Leo Smith carved the elaborate arches, while the rose window was created at the Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many of the symbols in the woodcarvings and window represent the Paine family. The space is considered a tribute to the artists who built the house, and styled in the Gothic and medieval period.

Studio

The lower level of the mansion was originally intended for informal recreation purposes, such as billiards, dancing, and other social activities. Tudor (1485-1603) influences are evident in the oak-beamed ceiling and sculpted concrete fireplace. This space is now called the Studio. With furniture and décor in the style of the Paine, it is a period room visitors can enjoy relaxing in. The Studio is also designed to host professional development workshops, meetings, and educational collaborations.

Carriage House

The Tudor-style (1485-1603) Carriage House was designed as a four-car garage with two apartments for staff above. The first floor was extensively renovated in 2012 to create a multi-purpose room on the first level, and to house administrative offices on the second. A large addition was also built to provide a public entrance while connecting the historic building to the new conservatory.

Conservatory

Built in 2012, the conservatory was the first new structure added to the Paine property since the estate was constructed. The exterior was built with the same materials as the historic Paine architecture–Kasota limestone and artisan stucco. Designed in the style of a garden conservatory with a large skylight and tall windows, the light-filled building functions as a multi-purpose space for events and programs.

Limousine Garage

Located just north of the mansion, the Limousine Garage was designed to house the Paines’ limousine and other vehicles. The simple building is now used as storage space for materials used in outdoor weddings.

Courtyard Garage

This smartly designed and situated Tudor-style (1485-1603) building provides both utilitarian and aesthetic functions, and was originally referred to as the Tool Shed. The west façade provides a dramatic backdrop for the Rose Garden, and the building conceals the Carriage House courtyard behind, where garden work and activities would have been undertaken originally. The east side of the shed has three sets of double doors opening into the courtyard for easy access to equipment stored inside.

Garden Garage

Constructed in 2019, the Garden Garage was designed in the style of the estate’s historic architecture, and provides space for gardening tools, equipment and materials, plant and bulb deliveries, and meetings of the gardening staff. The Garden Garage is located at the back of the estate along Elmwood Avenue, and creates a lovely backdrop for the garden behind it.