Southern Style Meets European Flair

By Shayna Mace | Photography by Shanna Wolf

When guests drive up to Hans and Marijo Weissgerber’s Oconomowoc Lake home, they’re greeted by a sunny yellow manor with Spanish-tiled roof, decorative archway detail and show stopping carved Phillippine mahogany door. You might expect to find a similarly styled interior with touches of southern charm. But if you’re lucky enough to go inside, guests are treated to a rich tapestry of found objects, historical treasures and a distinctly European interior that is beyond compare.

“It’s a comfortable villa-type of home that we enjoy,” explains Hans. “It’s a nice escape for the few hours of free time that we can find now and then. It’s great to sit back and look at this beautiful view.”

Weissgerber, who owns the Golden Mast and was part owner of the Gasthouse in Waukesha, brought his style sensibility to the 9,000-square-foot home that he had built in 1992. He was involved in the home’s design and acted as the general contractor. He had already been collecting salvaged building materials for years he planned to use in the home, too.   “I had bought a chapel from the old seminary on Lac La Belle. I dismantled it and used a lot of things out of that chapel in my house. I had a great carpenter, Jim Schulte, that helped to put it all together.”

The lot and surrounding acreage has an interesting history behind it, Weissgerber explains.

“[The land was originally owned by] one of the wealthiest shipping captains in the Midwest who had a shipping fleet on the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. He built a mansion here and had accumulated a considerable amount of land. Just before Prohibition, his family turned the mansion and property into a large resort. [The resort] had 240 rooms and was called the Spring Bank Resort. Then Prohibition came along and the resort went out of business. The family that owned the resort sold it and gave it to the church and it became a monastery. So, it was a monastery from the 1930s to the 1980s called the Cistercian Monastery.”

In 1985 the monastery closed and the 40 acres of lakefront property was broken up into 12 lakefront lots. Weissgerber’s home is on the spot where the captain’s mansion once stood. He even has a framed aerial photograph of the property before the mansion was torn down hanging in his home.

THE STORIES WITHIN

Being so involved with the home design meant Weissgerber could visualize where all of his found building materials and decorative objects could live. Take the two-story main living area—the showpiece of the entire home. When guests walk in there’s a large cupola above the entrance that surrounded the seminary chapel’s main altar. Also in the entrance are four hand-carved wooden columns, Mankato stone floor and four green marble columns that all came from the chapel. The centerpiece of the room is a full-size sparkling chandelier from a hotel in Denver that was bought at an antique store in Phoenix.

Two extraordinary art pieces are the hand-carved wooden circus wagon figures hanging on the wall. Weissgerber says they were an auction find from Sarasota, where the Ringling Brothers’ winter circus headquarters was. Adjacent to the circus statues is a small balcony (that’s attached to an upstairs bedroom) with a carousel horse on display. The horse was an antique store find and the balcony was salvaged from a Milwaukee antique store along with the two Gothic stained glass windows behind it. Weissgerber admits he’s a romantic at heart and liked the idea of having the balcony with the carousel horse as a nod to a fairy tale.

The second-floor balcony railing came from the old Peck family mansion on Lac La Belle that was being razed. “I took the opportunity to go there and brought my whole crew and I salvaged it. We dismantled the lobby of the mansion in one day and brought the railing over here,” he says.

Other artwork and artifacts in the room were collected or given as gifts. Take the lion head next to the front door: “A guy called me and said we have these things at the Milwaukee Public Museum—a bunch of animal trophies. They had a lion’s head, a Kodiak bear skin and an elk mount. The elk mount is at the Golden Mast. I gave the bear skin as a wedding gift to a friend. And that’s where I picked up the lion’s head.”

FABULOUS FINDS

Other rooms in the home have just as many fascinating pieces in them. The kitchen is filled with reclaimed building materials—like the oak timber rafters and former chapel altar used in the kitchen island. For cold winter nights there’s a pink marble fireplace that adds warmth. “Since our house is on the original site where the [captain’s] mansion was and it was razed when we bought the lot, I was able to acquire the fireplace from the library. It adds a nice touch to the kitchen,” says Weissgerber.

Dividing the kitchen and dining room is grate work from the chapel, which adds a grotto-like touch to the sunny, pleasant dining area. Though the kitchen is warm and welcoming, Weissgerber admits they don’t eat in it a whole lot: “We don’t cook at home … maybe once a month. We are usually preoccupied with running our restaurant and we eat at the restaurant. We enjoy cooking, we just don’t do much at home, except for breakfast!”

The master bath is an homage to German style mixed with a fairy-tale whimsy. The vintage light fixture was the top of an old English street lamp and was  purchased at an antique store in Milwaukee. The intricate six-by-eight-foot stained glass window was designed by Weissgerber and built by a master stained glass artist. “Being that I’m a romantic I used the theme of the frog prince looking up at the castle at his princess (my wife Marijo),” he says with a smile.

GORGEOUS VISTAS

Since the Weissgerbers are in the hospitality business it’s fitting that their lower level is equipped for entertaining. However, the décor is radically different from upstairs—the room is painted with a southwestern mural—and Weissgerber himself is in one of the scenes. An antique oak wet bar takes up an entire wall and has a sink, ice maker and dishwasher and is fully stocked with libations. Connected to the room is a stunning pool table area hung with framed, autographed NFL jerseys from the likes of Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Bart Starr.

Outside the immaculately landscaped backyard looks like it would belong at a resort down south—minus the palm trees and mangroves. Weissgerber laid the brick and did the landscaping himself based off of the old mansion’s terrace footprint. Their elevated property with 125 feet of frontage allows the couple to enjoy the lake view.

“I feel I’m very fortunate that I was able to put together a residence that allows us to appreciate a quality and comfortable environment for me and my wife. We are very lucky we have this lake country lifestyle where we can enjoy the beautiful view and the home.”

This home was featured in the Lake Country: Summer 2016 issue.

For more photos of featured Lake Country homes, visit the Lake Country Gallery page.