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The Woodson House was designed for Leigh Yawkey and Aytchmonde P. Woodson by George W. Maher. Leigh was the only child of Cyrus and Alice Yawkey.  After the Woodsons were married in 1911, they lived in Kansas City where Mr. Woodson practiced law.  

When the Woodsons decided to return to Wausau, the Yawkeys hired George W. Maher, the Prairie School architect to design a house.  They wanted the Woodsons to be close at hand, so the Yawkeys bought the Sexsmith house across the street and had it moved, enabling the Woodson House to be built on this site in 1914.

The house was the last Prairie School style house designed by Maher in Wausau.  He had designed three large stucco Prairie houses in Wausau.  Only two are extant.  He also designed two Colonial Revival houses and the public library (now demolished).

The design that Mr. Maher used for the Woodson house was the dominant horizontal line, but the hipped roof was divided into three sections and there were several motifs such as the arches, the lotus flower and cartouches.  These motifs are repeated on the exterior as well as the interior.

The large windows on the second story are typical of the Prairie School style of architecture.  The series of windows in the living room are called ribbon windows.  The house is brick and the roof is tile.  Note the wonderful triple chimneys that mimic the three sectioned roof.

According to Maher expert, Don Aucutt, the motifs are:  segmental and semicircle arches, guttae in various sizes, lotus flowers, lotus buds and cartouches.  They appear inside and outside.  The motifs show in the dining room sideboard and table and chairs (now in the historical society library).  This furniture was made at Hasselgren Studio in Chicago, a firm which between 1911-1937 furnished many large suburban Chicago houses. 

The entryway leads to a beautiful carved walnut stairway.  All of the woodwork on the first floor was given seven coats of varnish.  The wood was rubbed with pumice between coats.  

The Woodsons sold the house to the Immanuel Baptist Church in 1954.  The church added the sanctuary in 1956.  The Marathon County Historical Society purchased the property in 1995.  Today it is used for the administrative offices for the Society, the research library and archives; the artifact storage and exhibits are also in the building. 

This is the home of Cyrus and Alice Yawkey, built in 1900-1901 in the Classical Revival style.  Designed by the Milwaukee architects Henry Van Ryn and Gerrit de Gelleke, it features large ionic columns and a pedimented portico.  When it was built the cost was $35,000 - said to be the most expensive house in Wausau.  Only six years later, the Yawkeys hired George W. Maher to remodel.  The first floor was completely remodeled, a two story addition was added to the back, and a sun porch was added on the east side of the house.  In 1974, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  A three million dollar restoration was finished in 2008.

Originally from Michigan, the Yawkeys moved to northern Wisconsin in 1889 when Cyrus joined with his uncle and a business partner to form the Yawkey and Lee Lumber Company.  Alice Yawkey named the town that was founded by the venture, Hazelhurst, because of the abundance of hazel trees in the area.  Ten years later in 1899, the Yawkeys moved to Wausau where Cyrus was the uncontested leader of the Wausau Group.  The Wausau Group was composed of wealthy lumbermen who polled their resources in hopes of improving Wausau's economy as the logging industry was dying in the area.  They founded several businesses, utilitiy companies and the first paper mill in the area (Wausau Paper Mills in Brokaw).

Cyrus Yawkey died in 1943, and Alice continued living in the house until her death in 1953.  Their only child, Leigh Yawkey Woodson, and their grandchildren presented the house to the Marathon County Historical Society in 1954.