Ripon moves building tied to founding of the Republican Party, calling its historic designation into question

RIPON — Officials in Ripon have moved the building where the Republican Party is said to have been founded to a commercial area across town, costing the site, at least temporarily, its landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places.

Workers moved the Little White Schoolhouse Monday from downtown Ripon to a commercial area on the northwest side of town at 1074 W. Fond du Lac Street, WLUK-TV reported.

The Ripon Chamber of Commerce, which owns the building, said the move was made to increase its visibility before conservatives descend on the state for the GOP national convention in Milwaukee next year.

The chamber owns the building, and the new location was a donation from a member of the community. The chamber's executive director, Mandy Kimes, said the new location will increase visibility and accessibility as visitors arrive in the state for the convention next summer. Ripon is about 85 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

"We really want to keep the Little White Schoolhouse as unaltered as possible," Kimes told the television station. "And so having this other location … we're going to be able to turn that into a visitors center where people can come in, have an experience, learn what they're about to see and really enjoy it."

The building has been moved six times in its history. Monday's move was the first since 1951. Before then, it had been at three different locations at Ripon College.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson tweeted Tuesday that "the concern we’re seeing across WI and the country at this move is understandable."

He said he and U.S. Rep Glenn Grothman, who represents the area, will be sending a letter to the federal government "requesting it reinstate the Schoolhouse’s obvious and appropriate historical designations."

Timothy Bachleitner, chairman of the Fond du Lac County Republican Party, said he's disappointed with the move.

"This national treasure has now been moved right in the midst of an Ace Hardware, a vape/smoke shop instead of being able to stroll one block away and see the buildings where the men who founded the party have their names adorned on them," he said.

That new location, outside of downtown Ripon, is the main reason the building could lose its status, according to a letter to the Wisconsin Historical Society from the U.S. Department of the Interior obtained by USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin.

According to the letter from Sherry A. Frear, Chief and Deputy Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program, the schoolhouse's new location on Fond du Lac Street was "not appropriate," and moving the building would result in its deletion from the register.

The letter stated the proposed relocation would remove the schoolhouse from its 19th- and 20th-century context in downtown Ripon and result in the building's "loss of historic integrity."

But by the time the new location's approval was denied on March 20, Kimes said, the Chamber of Commerce had already sold the previous location and had to go through with the move.

The Chamber was unable to resolve the historic site's status by moving day, so the building automatically lost its spot on the register when it left its old address. A more formal process for landmark status withdrawal could come later.

While the Chamber was encouraged to reapply for landmark status for the schoolhouse's new address, Kimes said the organization would appeal the decision to remove the schoolhouse from the list. "We believe (the schoolhouse) deserves to be nationally recognized," she said, "and we are going to fight for that."

According to the Ripon Historical Society, the schoolhouse was built in 1853. The following year, several men who opposed slavery met there and created the Republican Party. The building was later remodeled into a private home. Former Wisconsin Gov. George Beck once lived in it.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Little White Schoolhouse moves to new location in Ripon