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| Michael Saternus in front of church door, 1976 |
Michael J. Saternus (1936-1990),
Cooksville’s own preservation architect, led the historic preservation,
restoration and rehabilitation efforts in the historic village for 20 years. His
expertise, leadership, and architectural skills no doubt were the most
important contributions to enhancing and preserving the community’s historic
built environment in the 20th century.
Mike’s many architectural projects
in Cooksville’s Historic District during those years included the Congregational
Church, Van Buren House, Longbourne House, Isaac Porter House, William Porter
House, Newell House, Frank Seaver House, John Seaver House, Cooksville
Schoolhouse, Cook House, and Smith House. His purchase in 1971 of the old
Cooksville Congregational Church, which had been used as the Porter Town Hall
for decades, saved it from potential demolition and succeeded in restoring that
important landmark.
His sensitively designed new additions
and exterior restorations (removing modern sidings and various inappropriate
“remuddlings”) ensured that the village’s significant heritage from the mid-19th
century would be restored and preserved for future generations to profit from.
Mike was a generous go-to man in
Cooksville for free advice, assistance and encouragement on any and all
rehabilitation and restoration projects, big or small. It helped that he was also energetic, enthusiastic
and a very skillful carpenter, as well as an architect.
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| Mike at the Van Buren House project, 1978 |
A native of Chicago, Mike
attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and then the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (B.S in Art, 1966). He worked for several architectural firms
in Madison and at the same time undertook his own preservation projects while
he lived in his adopted village of Cooksville.
Mike also took a leadership role
in the community and in the township. He served on the Board of the Cooksville
Community Center from 1976 to 1990, as a Board member, President,
Vice-President and Secretary. He also served as Chair of the Cooksville
Historic District Committee of the Town of Porter from the beginning in1979 to
1990.
In addition to his focus on the
Cooksville Historic District, Mike also lent his skills to a long list of
preservation projects in other parts of Rock County including elsewhere in the Town
of Porter and in Fulton, Evansville, Milton and Janesville. Other major
preservation projects of his included one in Paoli and eight in historic
Mineral Point.
Mike also served as the architect
for many important preservation projects elsewhere in the state while working for
the architectural firm of Potter, Lawson and Pawlowski of Madison. These included
Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien, the Aldo Leopold Shack in Sauk County, the
Grand Theatre in Wausau, the National Soldiers’ Home Historic District in
Milwaukee, Sparta Free Library, Tomah Library, Christian Science Church,
Madison, and a Study for the Mansion Hill Historic District, Madison.
The Governor of Wisconsin
appointed Mike to the State Historic Preservation Review Board from 1985-1990
and to the State Historic Building Code Council (1982-1986). Mike received the
1990 award for “exceptional achievement in historic preservation” from the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin” and a “Distinguished Service” award from
the Wisconsin Society of Architects and American Institute of Architects for
“leadership…and commitment to historic preservation,” also in 1990.
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| Van Buren House and Church in winter |
Much of Mike’s energy was spent
working on his local Cooksville projects—on his Cooksville Congregational
Church (1879) and his home, the Van Buren House (1848,) as well as on his
friends’ and neighbors’ restoration and rehabilitation undertakings. He often volunteered
his time, spoke about the importance of historic preservation, always encouraged
the saving of Wisconsin’s heritage for future generations—and he loved attending
operas, traveling the country by car and train to see architectural sites, new
and old, and tending to his collection of model railroad trains and layouts— and
enjoying village life with his friends and partner Larry Reed, until his early
death in 1990.
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