A04 SOW.pdf

SCOPE OF WORK

PREPARE NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION FOR

VILLA LOUIS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK

PRAIRIE du CHIEN, WISCONSIN

I. INTRODUCTION

The National Park Service (NPS), through the regional office located in Omaha Nebraska, seeks the preparation of a revised National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination for Villa Louis, located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. The current documentation was prepared in 1975 and does not meet current requirements of the NHL program. A new NHL nomination is required meeting today’s professional standards and thematic framework, addressing all relevant historic contexts and areas of significance. The NHL nomination shall be completed within twenty-four

(24) months of the date of the award. The work will be accomplished through contract and will consist of the components discussed in the statement of work.

National Park Service Historian Thomas M. Pitkin, working in the regional office for Region 2, located in Omaha, Nebraska, acknowledged the importance of Prairie du Chien in a special report published on May 28, 1937. Twenty years later, Historian Charles E. Shedd, Jr., evaluated the town of Prairie du Chien in his research conducted for the National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. Shedd recommended that it be included in Theme XI, Advance of the Frontier, 1763-1830, as an early fur trade center and Mississippi River town. Finding that it did not retain sufficient historic integrity to be designated a district, however, Shedd instead focused on key individual properties in the area. Villa Louis was one of these, described as “a fine example of a 1870, post-Civil War estate.”

Shedd included the property in his Historic Sites Survey report dated February 16, 1959, and the Secretary of the Interior designated Villa Louis an NHL on October 9, 1960. Shedd’s report and the context for Theme XI, Advance of the Frontier, comprised the initial NHL documentation for the property. A National Register nomination was prepared in 1975 by Blanche Higgins Schroer, as part of the Landmark Review Process, which provided documentation to supplement the original Historic Sites Survey. Schroer’s 1975 nomination added more information about the development of the Villa Louis estate, however, it lacked a well-developed historic context, a relevant period of significance, an assessment of contributing and non-contributing resources, and a discussion of several associated areas of significance. The goal of this project is to provide a complete NHL nomination that addresses these weaknesses.

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE RESOURCE

Villa Louis is owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society and operated as a state historic site.

While the address is Prairie du Chien, the site is located on Saint Feriole Island, which is a 240-acre island in the east channel of the Mississippi River, above the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. Prairie du Chien is the oldest European settlement on the upper

Mississippi River, dating to the 17th century. The history of the area, however, goes back much farther, possibly to the first millennium and occupation by Paleo-Indians.

These early cultures occupied lands in current-day Wisconsin exposed by melting glaciers, as indicated by archeological evidence of their communities and activities. Much later, the Mississippian culture, called Oneota in Wisconsin, established villages, engaged in farming, and developed an extensive trade network that extended far beyond the region. The Hopewell culture also existed in the region, with their own communities and trade networks, and built distinctive mounds and earthworks. It is believed that a large mound located at Villa Louis is a Hopewell site. The property also contains evidence of American Indian encampments, particularly those of the Fox, and trade activity. Native Peoples occupied Saint Feriole Island long before the Villa Louis estate existed, however, the archeological and historical record of their activities is incomplete.

By 1814, Europeans, the British, and Americans competed over possession of the Upper Mississippi, building forts and other supporting buildings, engaging in the fur trade, and pushing Indian cultures to the west. These activities were part of the War of 1812 and regional conflicts that came afterward. Villa Louis contains remnants from two forts, Fort Shelby, established by the Americans around 1814 and later re-named Fort McKay by the British, and Fort Crawford, the first fort of this name established ca. 1816-17. These were built on or near the Hopewell Indian mound. The garrison housed at the first Fort Crawford suffered from disease and flooding due to its location on Saint Feriole Island and by 1852, a second Fort Crawford was constructed on the mainland portion of Prairie du Chien. Both functioned as part of a string of U.S. Army fortifications extending from Illinois, through Wisconsin, to Minnesota. These also supported the work of the U.S. Indian Agency, established to control trade, settle disputes, and monitor conflicts between Europeans, Americans, and Native Tribes. This period of Villa Louis’s history warrants additional research and analysis, particularly the Native American component, as well as involvement by troops stationed at Fort Shelby and Fort Crawford in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War (ca. 1832). Troops were also engaged to build a military road from Fort Crawford eastward to Fort Winnebago in Portage, Wisconsin. That route now carries U.S.

Highway 18 from Prairie du Chien towards Madison.

The most distinctive resource at Villa Louis is a grand manor house built in 1870 by the Dousman family. Hercules Louis Dousman I made his fortune in the fur trade as a lead agent of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company and as a land speculator and entrepreneur.

Dousman was sent to Prairie du Chien in 1826, where he first served as an assistant to the company’s lead agent. Within eight years, no longer an assistant, Dousman directed the fur trade operations from Prairie du Chien to the Canadian border. He extended his interests in other fur trade companies and ultimately in other business enterprises as the fur trade diminished.

Dousman became a lumberman, purchased extensive timber lands, and engaged in the steamship and railroad industries. As a result, Hercules Dousman amassed a large fortune and built a grand house on Saint Feriole Island directly upon the Hopewell Indian mound, where he hosted distinguished visitors and held lavish parties.

Upon his death in 1868, Dousman’s property passed on to his wife, Jane, and son, Hercules Louis Dousman II, who was then only 20 years old. The original “House on the Mound” was demolished within two years and a new home was built there for the junior Dousman and his mother. Architect Edward Townsend Mix designed the residence that is now the featured property at Villa Louis. Some of the materials from his father’s “House on the Mound” reportedly were used in its construction. H. Louis Dousman did not stay long in the new house and instead moved first to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he married Nina Sturgis, then moved to St.

Louis, where they raised their family. Dousman’s mother, Jane Roulette Dousman, lived in the second “House on the Mound” until her death in 1882. Three years later, her son returned to Prairie du Chien with his family and began to establish a horse breeding stock farm and racetrack on the Villa Louis property. In January 1886, however, H. Louis Dousman died of appendicitis at the age of 37. His wife, Nina, disbanded the stock farm and racetrack. Two years later, she remarried and moved to New York for a brief period before returning with her children to the family home in Prairie du Chien.

Nina Dousman named the property Villa Louis in honor of her husband. The estate remained in family ownership until it was transferred to the town of Prairie du Chien in the 1930s to be operated as a historic house museum. The Wisconsin Historical Society acquired Villa Louis in 1952 and established it as the state’s first historic site. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, Villa Louis remains a puzzle in terms of its contributing resources and national significance because there are many layers of history that have yet to be fully documented and understood.

III. STATEMENT OF WORK

The NPS seeks the preparation of a new NHL nomination for the Villa Louis NHL that meets current professional standards. The NHL nomination must clearly state the historical and archeological significance of the cultural resources within the geographical boundary of the property, addressing all primary areas of historical significance. In addition, the nomination must include an evaluation of the estate’s historic integrity, current condition, the contributing or non-contributing status of all associated extant resources, and a comparative analysis with similar nationally significant properties.

Research shall take into consideration additional areas of significance that may be associated with Villa Louis and represented by extant resources. These contexts may include, but are not limited to the following:

Pre-contact American Indian cultures, specifically the Hopewell culture;

Discussion of known archeological resources within the site boundaries;.

American Indian history relevant to the Prairie du Chien area;

Euro-American and American Indian trade with respect to fur trade in the area;

Post-fur trade era history of land use and development;

Changing U.S. federal policies and establishment of military forts in the area;

American Indian removal from the area;

Euro-American settlement and immigration;

African American settlement, interactions with white Euro-American communities, segregation.

Please refer to the following website for a copy of the correct NHL form to be used and a discussion about the preparation process, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-nomination.htm

The NHL Bulletin, “How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations,” can be found at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-bulletin.htm

There are two separate documents which accompany this SOW:

A06 Specifications (Villa Louis_NR NHL nom photographs).pdf

A06 Specifications (Villa Louis_NR NHL nomination_1975).pdf.

The nomination shall conform to the requirements provided in the NHL Bulletin and shall include the following elements:

A. Research

The Principle Investigator (PI) shall consult the archives and library of the Wisconsin Historical Society and records held by the State Historic Preservation Office in Madison, Wisconsin. These repositories hold historical and archeological research materials related to the property.

Additional research is needed in several areas of significance associated with Villa Louis and Prairie du Chien because the current NHL documentation is inadequate and incomplete. Sources, collections, and repositories for additional contexts (areas of significance) shall be identified and consulted as part of this project.

B. Statements of national significance

The PI shall apply NHL criteria to the nominated property and identify its period(s) of significance, as outlined in the NHL Bulletin, “How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations,” at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-bulletin.htm The PI shall use clear and concise declarative statements to explain Villa Louis’s national significance and extant related cultural resources for its period(s) of significance. The PI must determine the period of significance and consider the possibility that there may be more than one for this property. While the 1959 Historic Sites Survey recommended Villa Louis for NHL designation under Theme XI, Advance of the Frontier, 1763-1830, the 1975 National Register nomination for the property identified “Prehistoric,” 1700-1799, and 1800-1899, and noted 1870 as a specific date of importance. The PI will have to revisit the previous documentation in order to determine and defend more accurate periods of significance in the new NHL nomination. This information will be provided in Section 2. Significance Data and explained in Section 5.

Significance Statement and Discussion.

C. Architectural and archeological description https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-nomination.htm

A description and analysis of the architectural character of the extant buildings at Villa Louis, with most attention paid to the 1870 manor house designed by Edward Townsend Mix, and analysis of documented archeological resources in the district. This information shall be provided in Section 6 of the NHL nomination form, Property Description and Statement of Integrity. The PI shall describe the extant cultural resources, significant buildings and ruins on the property, the historic cultural landscape, and all associated resources that contribute to the historical and archeological significance of the property, as well as those that are non-contributing. Section 6 shall also include an assessment of the property’s condition and historic integrity, with a concluding discussion about the methodology used to determine the physical attributes that each property has in order to be considered for designation under specific NHL criteria.

D. Narrative history with well-developed historic contexts

The history portion of the nomination, provided in Section 5, Significance Statement and Discussion, shall expand upon the introductory, summary statements of significance mentioned in Item B above. The fully developed discussion shall apply NHL criteria to the nominated properties for their respective periods of significance, as outlined in the NHL Bulletin, “How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations,” which can be found online at, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-bulletin.htm Section 5 shall also include a comparative analysis that discusses other relevant NHLs and nationally significant properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in comparison with the property being nominated.

E. Bibliography

Major sources shall be provided in a bibliography located in Section 7 of each NHL nomination, Bibliographical References and Other Documentation. This will include source materials used in the preparation of the nomination, including relevant research, surveys, and reports dealing with the history of the property, archeological resources, and general background research materials.

The format must comply with the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

F. Boundary description

A written boundary description and justification shall be provided in Section 4, Geographical Data, along with Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) or the Latitude/Longitude coordinates of the historic property. The UTM coordinates shall be clearly marked on a current U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) map, 7.5 minute series.

G. Maps

Maps shall be provided with the nomination package, according to directions provided in the NHL Bulletin, “How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations,” available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/nhl-bulletin.htm The nomination shall include a map that clearly shows Villa Louis’s boundaries, a site plan that shows all extant resources (excluding archeological data and sites), and a base map (or maps) that clearly defines the geographic area where the property is located.

H. Photographs

Current photographs that document each property shall be submitted as part of the nomination package, per NRHP/NHL standards and requirements. They shall be prepared and labeled as required. All photographs not used in the final, approved NHL nomination will be considered U.S. government property and shall be submitted with the final research materials at the completion of the project.

I. Executive Summary

Upon completion of the NHL nomination and acceptance by the NPS, the contractor shall prepare an Executive Summary for the NHL nomination. The NPS requires a summary about the property that identifies the key elements of the NHL nomination and events in the preparation and approval process. The NPS will provide a template for the Executive Summary.

The NPS will review the Executive Summary for each nomination and the documents will be revised by the contractor if necessary.

Sample draft summaries may be found at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/2020-fall-meeting.htm

J. PowerPoint Presentation to the NHL Committee

Presentation of the completed NHL nomination to the NHL Committee is a required component of this project. This presentation is an important part of the NHL review process and it will be scheduled by NHL Program staff when all components of the NHL nomination are completed.

The short presentation, approximately five minutes in length, shall be made before the committee via a PowerPoint presentation about Villa Louis and the NHL documentation. The contractor shall prepare the PowerPoint presentation per guidance provided by NHL Program staff in Washington, D.C. The NPS will provide a template and master slide background for use by the contractor. Selected images and maps from the historic context and nominations may be used.

The oral presentation will be made in person during a meeting of the NHL Committee that will be held in Washington, D.C. Upon completion of the PowerPoint, the contractor shall be prepared to answer questions about the NHL documentation from the NHL Committee. The contractor will serve as the subject matter expert on Villa Louis and its associated contexts.

K. Final Revisions to the NHL documentation

The NHL Committee and National Park System Advisory Board have the prerogative of asking for changes to and revision of NHL documentation presented to them during the approval process. The contractor shall be responsible for addressing any changes or concerns raised by the NHL Committee and Advisory Board, finalizing the NHL documentation, and re-submitting it to the NPS NHL Program staff in Washington, D.C.

IV. ADDITIONAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

A. General provisions

1. The NHL nomination and Executive Summary must be compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The NPS will provide templates for these.

2. During the period of revision of each draft, the PI shall consult with the NPS

Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) who will be named upon award, to ensure the satisfactory resolution of review comments and submission of a final draft in a timely manner. The PI will keep the COR informed at each step of the project.

3. All draft submissions will require line numbering for editing purposes. Line numbers will be removed from the final draft prior to submission.

4. The NPS reserves the right to require additional, technical reviews, as necessary. All drafts shall be reviewed by the NPS for contract sufficiency and professional quality.

The contractor will be notified when review comments will be transmitted.

5. All data gathered during the course of this study are the property of the United States government. Within 60 days of written acceptance of the NHL documentation, all notes, records, maps, drawings, photographs, negatives, slides, tapes, summaries, and other data acquired during the course of this study will be submitted to the COR at the NPS regional office in Omaha, Nebraska.

B. Project completion

1. Within 30 days of the awarding of the contract, the contractor shall coordinate and attend a meeting via tele-conference or videoconference to discuss technical aspects of the contract and to confirm the schedule for the submission of the products described in the Scope of Work with the COR.

2. The project shall be completed within 24 months from the date of award.

C. Report standards/format and submission schedule

The completed NHL nomination shall adhere to professional guidelines presented in the NHL Bulletin, “How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations.” Draft and final nominations will be submitted on the NHL nomination form provided by the NPS, and include the information required in the Section III, above. Photographs, maps, plans, drawings, and text must be clean, clear, and legible. The format must comply with the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The use of footnotes is preferred to endnotes. Draft submittals will require line numbering for editing purposes. Line numbers will be removed from the final nomination.

E. Progress updates

Quarterly progress updates about work completed and progress made during the performance of the research and writing phases of this contract are required. These brief updates shall be sent via email to the COR on September 30, December 31, March 31, and June 30.

F. Project submittals

The Principal Investigator (PI) or Project Manager (PM) shall submit drafts of the NHL nomination at 3 stages in the course of the project, being a 75% submission, a 95% submission, and a 100% submission. These percentages reflect the degree of completeness of the project and shall be submitted according to a schedule agreed upon by both the NPS and the PI. Failure to meet the agreed upon work schedule without satisfactory reasons may result in termination of the contract.

Upon acceptance by the NPS NHL program, the PI or PM shall prepare and submit an Executive Summary of the nomination and a PowerPoint presentation for the NHL Committee meeting. The PI or PM shall make the presentation to the NHL Committee and revise the final NHL nomination if changes are required by the committee and NPS.

Partial payments up to 90% of the contract price may be made. Ten percent may be held until the NHL documentation is presented to the NHL Committee and final revisions are made. Partial payments may be requested up to once per month for work performed or costs incurred and require prior approval from the COR before submitting an invoice. See Terms and Conditions for invoicing requirements.

G. Disposition of data

All data uncovered during the course of this project are the property of the United States government. At the conclusion of research and within 60 days of written acceptance of the final draft of the study, all notes, records, maps, drawings, photographs, negatives, slides, tapes, summaries, and other data acquired during this project will be submitted to the NPS. All digital images, maps, and other graphics generated for or used in this project shall be submitted to the NPS on CDs, with their formats specified.