Registration opens August 1

Refreshments will be provided

Tickets: FREE, but registration is required as space is limited

Nestled in the gently rolling terrain along the east edge of Wiicawak Bay, the Frost Woods neighborhood began as a cluster of modernist houses for University of Wisconsin faculty in the 1930s and exploded in the 1950s during a post-WWII population boom. Guided for decades by a homeowners’ association, the neighborhood contains a wealth of midcentury architecture, along with the earliest and finest concentration of the International Style in Wisconsin.

The story of Frost Woods stretches back millennia, however, from Late Woodland effigy mounds to Ho-Chunk seasonal camps to a 19th-century white settler who spared an oak forest. Today, careful stewardship preserves this layered landscape of archaeology, architecture, and community planning.

The neighborhood is in the process of being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This presentation will highlight the history and architecture of the neighborhood and will explore what makes Frost Woods a unique place and worthy of preservation.

Image: The Wright and Ednah Thomas House, designed in 1931 by Hamilton and Gwenydd Beatty, was the first International-style house in Wisconsin. Courtesy of Justin Miller.