Look for a stately two-story home with clapboard siding, a graceful front porch held up by elegant columns, and a canopy of trees spinning orange and green-just off to your right as you follow the shaded sidewalk.
Picture yourself arriving here in the late 1800s, maybe catching a whiff of wood smoke from distant chimneys and the faint sound of carriage wheels on the street. This handsome house, designed in the Italianate style by Arvin Luce Weeks, was built for Thomas and Bridget Blackstock-a power couple of their day. Thomas started life as an Irish immigrant and, through brains, sweat, and perhaps just a pinch of luck, built a fortune in the Phoenix Chair Company, along with successes in banking and real estate. He wasn’t shy about civic duty either: imagine his busy schedule, moving from city council meetings to mayoral responsibilities-no snooze buttons for him! Bridget, meanwhile, would have greeted Sheboygan’s movers and shakers right behind those ornate doors. Hold onto your hat-Thomas even served in the Michigan House of Representatives before calling Wisconsin home. Since 1995, this house has been on the National Register of Historic Places, preserving stories of ambition, industry, and a couple who weren’t afraid to dream big on the Sheboygan skyline.
