website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Daniel Kusel
Sr. Home
216 N Church (Church and Cady)
1858
"In 1858 Joseph Bursinger built an extra-large aging cellar in the hill
where Louis Kusel lives today. Many hundreds of barrels of beer were placed
in these cellars to lager or age." [ chapter
on brewery tunnels ]
The original abstract for the Kusel property shows Bursinger
purchased the house on Sept. 2, 1859 from one John Finn. Then on Nov. 25, 1859 the deed notes that Bursinger was given the authority to build the tunnels.
The agreement said Bursinger would be allowed to build the east-west cellar as
a passage to and from his other cellar (the north-south section). So apparently the first section constructed
was the north-south and the east-west section came later.
Other requirements were that Bursinger had to construct a "flate"
[slate? flat?] entrance door on the east end of the sidewalk, that the tunnel
must be built in a "good and substantial manner" and in such a manner
that sidewalk could later be constructed according to grade and that the
entrance be at grade level.
The abstract makes for
interesting reading. The first entry is
when the United States of America sold the land to James Rogan on Jan. 29,
1839, for a buck and a quarter an acre.
1895
12 18 Miss Jennie Kusel
gave a dancing party WR
2008
07 07 Bottle rocket
likely cause of fire, 216 N Church [ Fire Dept
chapter ]. WDT
Cross references:
Doug Behling owner in 1991
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin