Villa Louis

As frontier entrepreneurs, Hercules Dousman and his heirs amassed a fortune. Son H. Louis Dousman and his wife Nina built the Villa Louis as the centerpiece of a country estate that reflected their status as wealthy Victorians. For a time they operated the estate as the Artesian Stock Farm, breeding and raising fine standardbred trotting horses for harness racing. They furnished the mansion with elegant antiques, fine art, and exquisite heirlooms. Then, amid the thick of Victorian pomp in 1885, they redecorated the house top to bottom in British Arts-and-Crafts splendor.

The Dousmans left the estate in 1913, and the rooms' luster waned over time until the Wisconsin Historical Society returned the magnificent home to its 1890s heyday. The documentary restoration of the house was completed in May 2003 and is now one of America's most authentically restored Victorian homes.

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