Experience a slice of history

The restored Arena farmhouse is now rentable as an Airbnb

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Whatever Samantha Crownover does, it should probably have the prefix “super” attached to it. Crownover, executive director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society chamber music group, exudes enthusiasm for all of her many roles. She is also a property manager, specializing in historic properties, notably of the Baskerville condos, 121 S. Hamilton St. She’s a freelance art consultant. She’s been a president and board member of the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation. And this is just the condensed version. She and her husband, Bruce, are also an Airbnb “superhost,” a designation earned through renting out their near west-side home for the last nine years, mainly on weekends.

And when she found out Brisbane House, a pioneer homestead just outside of Arena, Wisconsin, was coming up for sale, she knew she wanted to restore it.

“The house was in terrible shape,” says Crownover, kicking off her shoes before mounting the stone steps to the kitchen.

The previous resident had lived there until she was 90 years old and there had been little-to-no upkeep for many years. Plaster was crumbling, there were moisture problems, the fireplaces were unusable, and the place was plagued with mice, wasps and bats. “Nothing was caulked. Nothing was sealed.”

But the upside was enormous. The house was built in 1868 by William Henry Brisbane, a slaveholder turned abolitionist originally from South Carolina; the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built from limestone (quarried from a nearby bluff, Crownover says), the house is immediately striking. Compared to other similar area farm homes from the period, it’s extremely tall and narrow, with a very steep pitched roof. It’s built in what was called the I-style, two rooms wide and one room deep. “I-style was more of a Southern style,” Crownover says. Brisbane House is also unusual in that it has four doors, one on each side of the house. 

But Crownover was even more intrigued by the man who built it. Brisbane, born in 1806, inherited his family’s slaves. A Baptist minister, he became convinced slavery was a sin. Eventually he took the slaves to Ohio, freed them, and helped them resettle. After stints in Massachusetts and New York and then back to Ohio, Brisbane moved to Wisconsin in 1853. He served as a minister in Madison as well as clerk of the state senate, before becoming a chaplain to the 2nd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. He returned to South Carolina after the war as a tax commissioner, but soon made his way back to Wisconsin, to Arena. He continued as a minister and also owned a ferry and operated a tavern, says Crownover. He is buried in the Mazomanie cemetery.

The house was not a stop on the Underground Railroad, as stated in the file for a historic photo of the house in the Wisconsin Historical Society archives (the house wasn’t built until after the end of the Civil War, Crownover points out).

“I want to consider the legacy of the man who built it,” says Crownover, whose educational background is in art history. She has decorated Brisbane House with art by Black and Indigenous artists that she and her husband collected over the years through their association with Madison’s Tandem Press. One of Crownover’s first jobs was as a curator there, and Bruce was a longtime Tandem printmaker and printer. One of her hopes for the house is that all guests “feel seen, heard and welcome.”

The connection with Tandem was what led Crownover to find Brisbane House in the first place. Tandem Press founder Bill Weege lived on the property next door, where he also had a printmaking studio, and the Crownovers were frequent visitors. Weege died in November 2020.

Crownover had good relationships with southern Wisconsin craftspersons from roofers to masons to plumbers from her property management experience and time with the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation, and says she had everything lined up to start the restoration on the day of the closing in April 2021. Remarkably, the house opened for its first Airbnb guests in mid-August. Though the yard was still not entirely landscaped, the house itself had been restored “to National Park Service specifications,” says Crownover, down to matching the original mortar color and consistency. A screen porch has been added as well as heating and air conditioning and everything is up to code.

The interior still has many of the original features, or period-appropriate replacements. The cabinets in the kitchen are pie safes from the early 20th century; the kitchen table is made from local cherry wood. Furnishings are an eclectic mix that Crownover collected from friends, Odana Antiques in Madison, and IKEA. 

There’s one bedroom with a queen bed on the second floor as well as a bathroom and a sitting room. Two bedrooms, one with a queen, one with two twin beds, are on the third floor. The staircases are narrow and steep. Historical documents associated with Brisbane and the home are on display. There are hiking trails throughout the 18-acre property and to a nearby landmark, Rattlesnake Ridge.

Crownover still has to restore a summer kitchen that was added to the rear of the house. “It was a dream come true for me to restore a place like this,” Crownover says. “Not everyone’s dreams come true. I feel a little guilty.”