Dousman-Dunkel Behling Inn
This building, once a stagecoach inn on the Watertown Plank Road, was built in the 1840’s. The probable builder was Michael Dousman (1771-1854), a fur trader and entrepreneur from Mackinac, Michigan.
It was operated as an inn from 1857-1872 by Daniel Brown, a Connecticut Yankee, however, the coming of the railroad doomed it as a stopping place. In 1873, Fredrick Zimdars, a farmer, bought it. Charles Dunkel and his descendants owned it from 1887 to 1977 when it was given to the Elmbrook Historical Society by John Behling, a grandson. Following its acquisition, it was moved to this site, once owned by Dr. Erastus B. Wolcott, the first Surgeon General of Wisconsin.
The Greek Revival architecture of this stately structure has placed it on the Historical American Buildings Survey and the National Register of Historic Places.
Marker can be reached from Pilgrim Parkway ¼ mile north of West Bluemound Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
