Baraboo Public Library

The Downtown Baraboo Historic District is a national historic district in downtown Baraboo, Wisconsin. The district encompasses 78 contributing buildings, most of which are commercial buildings centered around the Sauk County Courthouse square. Development in the district began in the 1840s; at the time, the courthouse district was considered the wealthy part of Baraboo by comparison to the more industrial areas by the Baraboo River and the railroad. The oldest contributing buildings in the district date to the 1870s, when economic growth in Baraboo and a series of fires that destroyed older buildings spurred extensive construction in the courthouse district. New buildings continued to be built in the district through the mid-twentieth century, with the latest contributing building being the 1966 Baraboo City Hall. The district includes examples of most popular architectural styles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival and other revival styles, Beaux-Arts, Prairie School, Modernist, and vernacular commercial styles.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 8, 2015. Three buildings in the district are listed individually on the National Register: the Sauk County Courthouse, the Al. Ringling Theatre, and the Gust Brothers' Store.

The Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States, opened its doors in November 1915 and has been operating continuously ever since. Designed by the architectural firm Rapp and Rapp, it was built by Albert Ringling, one of the circus Ringling Brothers, for $100,000. Over the years, it has featured performances from vaudeville and silent movies to grand opera starring such notables as Lionel Barrymore and Mary Pickford. The design of the theater is based on the Orpheum Theatre, built by Rapp and Rapp in Champaign, Illinois in 1914. The decor of the auditorium is said to have derived from Ange-Jacques Gabriel's opera house of 1763-1770 in the Palace of Versailles but some believe it to be at least equally based on Victor Louis's 1780 Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. Originally the theater had a Style 1 Wurlitzer theater pipe organ. Later a 9 rank, 3 manual Barton with a "circus wagon" style console replaced the Wurlitzer. The Al Ringling Theater was featured in an episode of PBS's History Detectives, where they investigated whether it was the country's first great movie palace.

The Sauk County Courthouse, located at 515 Oak Street in Baraboo, is the county courthouse serving Sauk County, Wisconsin. Built in 1906, the courthouse is Sauk County's fourth and its third in Baraboo. Wisconsin architecture firm Ferry & Clas designed the Neoclassical building. The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Albrecht C. Ringling House is a historic house at 623 Broadway in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The house was built in 1906 for Albrecht C. Ringling, the eldest of the Ringling brothers, and his wife Louise. By the time of the house's construction, the Ringling Brothers Circus was among the largest in the country, and it would acquire the Barnum and Bailey Circus the following year. The two-and-a-half story mansion has a Richardsonian Romanesque design and was built using brownstone quarried at Port Wing, Wisconsin. The house's design features a wraparound front porch topped by a square tower at the northeast corner, a porte-cochere on one side, and a hip roof interrupted by multiple gables. The interior decoration includes oak and mahogany woodwork, a marble fireplace, and a large painted landscape. Baraboo's Elks lodge bought the house from Ringling's family in 1936 and used it as a clubhouse for several decades; it is currently a historic house museum and brewery.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1976.

The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center (ICHOF), located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States, is dedicated to the preservation and advancement of clown art and achievement. Represented by professional and amateur clown associations, it pays tribute to outstanding clown performers, operates a museum of clowning with resident clown performers, conducts special events, and maintains a national archive of clown artifacts and history.

The Gust Brothers' Store is located in Baraboo, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.It is a fine example of an Italianate commercial style building, built in 1877–78 by August and William Gust for their meat market store. It is a two-story 22 by 51 feet (6.7 m × 15.5 m) grayish limestone building. It has also been known as the Baraboo Savings Bank and as the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, two banks which it later housed.

Baraboo ( BAIR-ə-boo) is a city in the Midwest and the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The largest city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo Micropolitan Statistical Area which comprises a portion of the Madison Combined Statistical area. Its 2020 population was 12,556. It is situated on the Baraboo River. Baraboo is home to the Circus World Museum and the former headquarters and winter home of the Ringling brothers circus. The Al. Ringling Theatre is an active landmark in the city. Baraboo is near Devil's Lake State Park, and Aldo Leopold's Shack and Farm.

The Jacob van Orden House is a historic house at 531 4th Avenue in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Jacob Van Orden, the president of the Bank of Baraboo, had the house constructed for his family in 1903. Milwaukee architectural firm Ferry & Clas designed the Tudor Revival house, which was built by George and Carl Isenberg of Baraboo. The three-story house has a red brick first floor and a stucco exterior with half-timbering on the upper floors. Its design also includes a front porch with a second-story balcony, bay windows on the front facade, and a roof with eight gables, all with bargeboard trim and wide eaves. The Van Orden family lived in the house until 1938; the Sauk County Historical Museum moved into the house the following year.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 6, 1996.

Seven Gables, also known as the Terrell Thomas House, is a historic house at 215 6th Street in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The house was built in 1860 for Terrell Thomas, a local banker and businessman. The house has a Gothic Revival design described as Downingesque, a term used for smaller Gothic houses inspired by architect Andrew Jackson Downing's design philosophy. Its design features an entrance pavilion topped by a gable roof with decorative bargeboard on its eaves, a side entrance on the west facade with a matching gable, a front-facing verandah with wooden brackets and detailing, and several dormers interrupting the main hip roof. John Durward, a Roman Catholic priest and the son of Durward's Glen founder Bernard Durward, bought the house in 1911; after his death in 1918, local district attorney and county judge Henry Jay Bohn lived in the house until 1929.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 1978.

The Walworth D. Porter Duplex Residence is located in Baraboo, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.Developer Walworth D. Porter built the duplex in 1894 as a rental property. The building has a Queen Anne style design with an irregular layout featuring reflection symmetry, clapboard and wood shingle siding, an oriel window and arched entrance porch with decorative woodwork on each unit, and a large dormer atop the front facade. The interior is generally intact and includes ornamental woodwork and fireplaces with decorative tiling in each unit. Duplex housing in Baraboo typically housed middle-class workers, especially those employed by the growing Ringling Brothers Circus; Charles Ringling, one of the Ringling Brothers, was the first tenant in the east unit. The building is a rare surviving example of side-by-side duplex housing in Baraboo.

The Thompson House Hotel is a historic hotel building at 200 Ash Street in Baraboo, Wisconsin. John Thompson built the hotel in 1899 to replace an older hotel on the site, which he had owned since the early 1890s. The two-story Italianate building features door and window heads and banding in dark-colored brick as well as a bracketed cornice. The first floor housed a dining room, which was later converted to a saloon, along with the innkeeper's quarters and storage rooms; the second floor had twenty guest rooms. The hotel was part of a group of hotels near the Baraboo railroad station and Ringling Brothers Circus headquarters; these hotels served tourists, circus workers, and traveling salesmen. Thompson sold the hotel before 1915, but it operated as a hotel under several names until the 1960s; it has since been converted to apartments.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 22, 1997.

The Charles Ringling House is a historic house at 201 8th Street in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Charles Ringling, one of the five brothers who founded the Ringling Brothers Circus, had the house built in 1900 for his family. Brothers George and Karl Isenberg of Baraboo built the Georgian Revival house. The two-story house features a long front porch supported by Ionic columns, a balustrade along the porch roof, two-story pilasters dividing the house's three bays, and a pediment atop the central bay. The property also includes a carriage house, a cottage, and a barn. Ringling and his wife Edith lived in the house until 1912, when they moved to Sarasota, Florida.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 21, 1997.