Westport commission recommends OK for Nau-Ti-Gal historic status

That recommendation had not been finalized and was not immediately available.

The site was most recently home to the Nau-Ti-Gal restaurant until it closed in spring of 2022 and the von Rutenbers sold it. Afterwards, a concept for an apartment complex came before the plan town commission.

That prompted Sharla Hanson and Sherry Hanson Lang to file the application, seeking to preserve the site of what was Hanson’s Tavern before it was sold to the von Rutenbergs.

The applicants’ grandparents, Thorvald and Anna Hanson, purchased what was then Brickson’s Tavern in 1907. According to the application, the building has housed the “longest operating business since 1861,” first operating as the Catfish Tavern.

The Jan. 5 hearing drew about 30 people to the Westport Town Hall, including the applicants, town residents, and the current and former property owners.

Four expressed support for the historic preservation designation; two registered opposition to the use for apartments, and other asked if it could be parkland.

Two opposed the historic preservation designation, saying the building failed to fit the criteria.

Sherry Hanson Lang presented history she had researched about her family and Hanson’s Tavern, along with her own recollections.

She recalled New Year’s parties as “the highlight of the year,” with dances and bands. The Westport Home Talent team also hosted games at the ballfield in the 1950s.

After Thorvald died in 1917, Anna Hanson became the “first known woman to operate a business in the area,” Lang said, adding the site has played a “colorful role in Wisconsin’s Prohibition history.”

“Mrs. Hanson and other saloon owners promptly transformed the business into a soft drink parlor but was frequently arrested for violating liquor laws,” Lang said.

Dan O’Callaghan appeared before the commission on behalf of the property owner, Starboard Land Company. The state’s Department of Financial Institutions shows Starboard Land Company registered as an LLC in July with the agent listed as Bradley Zellner.

O’Callaghan noted that the architectural consultant contracted by the town had indicated that the property did not meet the National Park Service’s criteria for landmark designation.

O’Callaghan said the property owners support the town’s historic preservation ordinance but had their own consultant review the property who agreed with the town consultant’s assessment.

The Starboard Land Company consultant, Rowan Davidson of Legacy Architecture, said that as a historic preservation consultant, he applies the standard of the National Park Service and the State of Wisconsin.

“Those same standards are also reflected in the town of Westport,” Davidson said. “They deal with whether a property is historic, whether it’s important because a person may have lived or worked there, whether it’s architecturally significant or whether it’s an archeological site.”

The property should look and feel as it did in the past, Davidson said. The Nau-Ti-Gal building’s structure no longer resembles Hanson’s tavern or the building from the late 1800s, and so could not by the national or local standards be determined as historic, according to Davidson.

Lifelong resident Jim CaPaul argued for the historic status, saying he was born and raised across the Yahara River from Hanson’s and remembered it as “the hub of Westport.”

“I think it’s a very important site in the township of Westport,” CaPaul said, adding the town has a preservation committee that is serious about preserving the town’s identity.

Noting the site’s significance, he said, “People in the city of Madison knew exactly where Hanson’s Tavern was. It was a very important local place to go… it was at the center of Westport at what we call Westport Road.”

CaPaul described the building as at “the top of list” of those to preserve, saying the age of the building or whether the original materials remain should not be the only criteria to consider.

Many other historic Westport sites no longer exist, he said, citing another tavern and the one-room Catfish School.

“There’s not too much left of what we can say ‘this used to be Westport or this is Westport,’” CaPaul said.

The town’s ordinance

Westport’s Historic Preservation Ordinance reads in part:

Section 60.64 of the Wisconsin Statutes authorizes town governments to adopt historic preservation ordinances, stating, “The Town Board, in the exercise of its zoning and police powers…may regulate any place, structure or object with a special character, historic interest, esthetic interest, or other significant value, for the purpose of preserving the place, structure or object and its significant characteristics.”

It notes the purpose is to “protect, enhance and preserve improvements, sites, landscapes and districts, which represent or reflect elements of the town’s cultural, social, economic, political and architectural history.”

Another stated purpose is to “safeguard the Town’s historic, pre-historic and cultural heritage, as embodied and reflected in historic structures, sites, districts, landscapes, traditional land uses, architectural, archeological or historical interest or value.”