Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Historically, Watertown was known for geese and Germans. Watertown goose livers
were the top of the pâté de foie gras line. The city exported up to 25 tons of the rich
organtoeasternmarketsannually.(Watertownperfectedtheartof“noodling”—force-feed-
ing the geese with noodles to fatten them up.) The local high school's team nickname is the
Goslings—not exactly ferocious, but at least historically relevant.
Until quite recently, the town's name was rendered Wasserstadt on a few business signs,
a remnant of the heavy immigration of enlightened freethinkers fleeing political and social
persecution in 1848 Germany. Most notable was Carl Schurz, a political reformer who ar-
rived in Watertown in 1855 and eventually left his mark on U.S. politics. His wife put the
town on the map, though, in contemporary terms; hers was the first kindergarten in the Un-
ited States, which continues to be one of the city's primary tourist draws. Watertown was
rumored at one time to be on the short list for state capital relocation.
MM
Octagon House
The
Octagon House
(919 Charles St., 920/261-2796, docent-led tours 10am-4pm daily
May-Oct., 11am-3pm Labor Day-Memorial Day, $7 adults) may be the most impressive
house in the state. It is certainly the largest pre-Civil War family residence in the Midwest,
withmorethan8,000squarefeetoffloorspaceand57rooms(althoughonlyonefireplace).
Built during the course of 13 years by John Richards—who owned three mills on the river
below the vertiginous hill upon which the house sits—the house sports one of the nation's
only cantilevered spiral staircases, a basswood and cherry marvel that pirouettes 40 feet to
the upper levels. This baby was so well built that reportedly not one of the stairs on the
staircases creaks. Behind the house on the large grounds is the nation's first kindergarten.
