Elks Lodge board Chairman Craig Giese show some of the water damage to the historic Al. Ringling Mansion they are trying to correct by making extensive roof repairs. Brian D. Bridgeford / News Elks member Craig Giese, chairman of the board of trustees for Baraboo Elks Lodge No. 688, gave the BNR a tour Friday of the imposing, if time worn, building.
It has much of the grandeur, extensive stained glass, fancy wooden fixtures, chandeliers and massive scale, you might expect of the home used by someone leading what was then a major nationwide business. A variety of original oil paintings with literary and biblical references also are part of the decor.
However, the Elks are beginning work on roof repairs expected to require tens of thousands of dollars, Giese said. The major problem is pinholes developing in a thin metal flashing that covers parts of roof and which is now letting water get into the walls and ceilings.
Elks Lodge board Chairman Craig Giese shows an original oil painting of a sword fight which includes a whole that has sparked may stories among local Elks. Brian D. Bridgeford / News Republic
Giese said the club no longer allows its secretary to use a former office in the southeast corner because of mold. The walls and ceilings in the room have deteriorated so much pieces are hanging down.
"The tin goes around all the fireplaces in the building," he said. "We have problems around all the fireplaces.
When Al. Ringling and his wife Lou began building the red stone mansion in the spring of 1905, it was a spectacular home for its time and place, said Paul Wolter, president of the Sauk County Historical Society.
Early in their careers as circus innovators, the Ringling brothers were on the road with the show much of the year and returned to Baraboo each winter where they rented houses or hotel rooms until it was time to hit the road again, he said. However, when their father died in a rented house in 1898, the Ringlings realized they had the money to adopt more settled lives and began building their own homes.
Al. Ringling's first home on the Broadway and Fifth Avenue was a small wood-framed Queen Anne house, which rapidly proved too "small, too under-scaled and too unimpressive," Wolter said.
So Ringling moved that house around the corner and built the present one.
"This was the largest and costliest home built in Sauk County, probably ever," he said. "If you had to replace it now it would be millions."read more at:http://www.wiscnews.com/baraboonewsrepublic/news/local/article_42659554-4dda-11e0-8a7c-001cc4c03286.html
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