Tank Cottage

Green Bay City, Brown County, WI

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Photo: The Tank Cottage at Heritage Hill State Park. It was built between 1776 and 1803, before Wisconsin became a state in 1848. The cottage was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Photographed by user:Royalbroil, 2014, (own work) [cc‑3.0], via Wikimedia Commons, accessed April, 2024.

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Tank Cottage (2640 South Webster Avenue, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Originally built at 8th Street and the Fox River, it was moved to Heritage Hill State Park in 1976.

The oldest existing house in Wisconsin [1,2]

The 1-1/2 story center portion of the house was built in 1776 by Joseph Le Roi, French voyager and fur trader. In 1805 the house was purchased by Judge Jacques Porlier, Wisconsin's first school teacher, who was also in the fur trade. In 1850 it was sold to Otto Tank, who was the son of a Norwegian nobleman (Carsten Tank) and had formerly served as a Moravian missionary in New Guinea. Otto Tank attempted to found a Moravian colony called Ephraim in Green Bay where he organized a school. It was he who added the 1-story wings at either side of the house.

The middle section of the house was originally of wattle and daub construction and the wings of wood frame. The entire building has been covered with wood clapboards.

1. Richard W. E. Perrin, Historic Wisconsin Architecture, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Chapter of the American Institutes of Architects, August, 1960.
2. James C. Massey, architect, National Park Service, October 1961, Historic American Buildings Survey [HABS WIS-165], memory.loc.gove, accessed June, 2011.

Street Names
Webster Avenue South