Eau Claire: Elite Country Estates

In every town, a few individuals and their families have disproportional influence on the affairs of the community. Through their power of wealth and property and religious, social, and political connections, they dominate the city as the elite, either tightly by linked through marriage, social institutions, and businesses or loosely, by sharing capitalist and middle-class values which are "sold" as community values. When the elite cluster together, they create elite landscapes. Eau Claire's elite created three country estates landscapes: 1) 19th century Ingram estate, 2) 1930s Hamilton estate, and 3) 1980s  Gold estate.

1) The 19th century Ingram country estate was located along Lowes Creek and can still be identified by several landscape features: street name -- Ingram Drive (5) -- cutstone gate (4), and buildings (1-3).
	topographic map, 1982. The stone gate, former private drive, and the mansion with its associated buildings are circled in red. Most of the estate was developed in the 1960s as Corydon Park, shown in red with curved streets. For an air photo of this estate, go to the TerraServer and type in Eau Claire, then move around the photos to find this part of the city. Be sure to zoom in as much as possible.

current street sign on Grover Road (5)	cutstone gate on State Street (4)	Ingram's mansion (1)	servant quarters & garages (1)	caretaker's house (2)	originally a barn (3)

2) E. R. Hamilton was the President of the Presto Company, founded in 1905 and still headquartered in Eau Claire, from 1937-1941. In 1969, when the company was first traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Melvin Cohen was President. In the depths of the Great Depression, Hamilton created a 27-acre horse farm by adding several inches of top soil to the sandy soil, planting white pines and lilacs, and building a mansion and other structures. The Hamilton estate can still be identified by several landscape features: street name (Hamilton Avenue), wooden fences, two brick gates, a caretaker's house and garage (the barn was torn down in 2001), and a mansion. The Pine Place subdivision, identified by the same street name, was built on the estate grounds in late 1960s. One of the Presto inventor's lived in this subdivision until the 1980s.

wooden fence around horse pastures (5)	caretaker's garage (3)	original farmhouse; caretaker (2)	lilacs and white pines along property line (6)
	originally a horse barn (4)	Hamilton mansion (1)	north gate (7)
	Presto inventor (9)	corporate headquarter	south gate (8)

	3) The Walter L. Gold estate, south of Grover Road, persisted until the 1980s. Gold was the daughter of the former owner of the pulp and paper mill on the Chippewa River, called Pope and Talbot for many years. Before the subdivision of the estate, the main house (2) was tucked away on a exclusive private drive with a no trespassing sign. People say that when the Gold's flew to Florida in the winter, their pets were driven by car to join them! It can still be identified by a street name, a white wooden fence along Grover Road, and the main house. Timber Creek Court is only the latest (in 2000) of several cul-de-sacs with very expensive houses built on this estate.	topographic map, 1982 The private drive leads to the mansion circled in red.

street name (1)	wooden fence (3)	mansion	close-up (2)	subdivision (4)

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