The West Hill Residential Historic District is a historic neighborhood on a bluff above the Chippewa River west of downtown Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It includes 163 contributing properties in a variety of styles, ranging from mansions of lumber executives built in the 1870s to ranch houses of the 1950s. In 2021 the district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The community of Chippewa Falls began when Jean Brunet led a crew up the Chippewa River into the wilderness in 1836 or 1837 to build a sawmill at the Falls. They managed to build a mill, and despite setbacks it grew into what by the 1880s was said to be "the largest sawmill under one roof in the world." The settlement around the mill grew into a city. After peaking in the 1880s, the sawmill business declined until the big mill finally closed in 1911, but by then other industries were under way: flour mills, a brewery, a woolen mill, shoe factories, a sugar beet factory, and others. For more background, see Chippewa Falls history.
Most of Chippewa Falls' early homes were mixed in with the businesses along Bridge Street, River Street, and Spring Street. In the 1870s when that area filled up and the needs of businesses began crowding homes out of the commercial area, neighborhoods filled in up "Catholic Hill" to the east and to the west of the business district. Part of that west side included stylish homes of the wealthy, and many of those homes remain relatively intact in what has become the West Hill Historic district.
Styles of buildings in the district followed much the same progression as in other cities in Wisconsin. These are good examples of different styles in the district, listed roughly in the order built:
The Cook-Rutledge House at 505 W Grand Ave is a 2-story mansion begun in 1873 by attorney and Assemblyman James M. Bingham and his wife Justine. Edward Rutledge, vice president of the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company, bought it in 1887 and expanded and remodeled it to its current appearance. The style is Italianate, with its hallmarks the low-pitched roof with paired brackets under the eaves, and the decorative hood moulds above the windows. A belvedere on the roof is also typical of the style, though not usually so large as this and not usually with the flared roof. The house also has tall decorative chimneys, metal cresting on the roof, stone quoins highlighting the corners of the red brick walls, a large porte-cochère out front, and an 1873 carriage barn behind. Attorney Dayton Cook and his family lived in the house from 1915 to 1973. The house is now a museum.
The LeDuc house at 604 W Central St is a simple square Italianate house - this one built in 1875. Like Cook-Rutledge it stands two stories with red brick walls on a stone foundation with a hip roof and eaves supported by paired brackets. Unlike Cook-Rutledge, it lacks quoins, the windows have round-arched tops sheltered by more elaborate hood mouldings, and an elaborate 5-sided bay windows faces Carson Street. An elaborate porch spans the facade, and a square wing extends from the back. This house had a square cupola on top, but it was removed in the 1930s. Elzear LeDuc was a bookkeeper for Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company. He and his wife Eleanor had ten children, so needed the large house, but it was started during the uncertain years following the Panic of 1873 and financial difficulties delayed its completion for over five years. The LeDucs and their descendants lived in the house for over a century.