Anderberg House
2849 Oregon Road, Fitchburg WI
Demolished in 2009
While the Anderberg House, located at 2849 Oregon Road in Fitchburg, was torn down in September 2009, it is remembered as a unique arts and crafts architecture reflecting its designer and builder, Albert Fredrick Maximilian Anderberg’s Swedish remembrances of his home in Sweden. He was born November 18, 1875 in Sweden and came to the United States in 1891. He was married to Selma Carlson in 1897 and lived in Rockford, IL, a hub for Swedish immigrants. When the new Wisconsin Capital building was being constructed, he rode his bicycle from Rockford, IL to Madison each week to work on the building. By 1907 he was living in a farmhouse on the Madison to Oregon Road in Fitchburg in the northwest part of section 1.
The farmhouse built in the 1890s was a small building, too small for his expanding family. Having building skills, he with the help of his two oldest sons, began constructing a 2 story house seamlessly attached to the old farmhouse. As opposed to the granite boulder foundation of the old building, the new addition had a concrete foundation. The new front porch was built with reinforced cast concrete including the columns, piers, rail and balusters, all made onsite. The exterior walls of both the old and new parts of the house were coated with crushed-granite stucco and wood shingle siding.
The interior of the house was a model of craftmanship. There were beamed ceilings in the dining room and entrance hall and half-timber and plaster walls and ceilings and panels in the living room. The dining room also contained a hand-crafted china cabinet and leaded-glass windows.
Ceiling beams, China cabinet and leaded glass window on first floor
The finely detailed oak stair newel post, rail and plate rails led up to the second story. There was artwork on the walls especially in the upstairs that depicted scenes from Sweden. These paintings, bordering the top of the walls were likely made by Albert and his daughter Selma. One of the panels depicts Albert’s Swedish house.
Plate rails on stairway, painted boarder on upstairs bedroom and painted boarder of Swedish house
The Anderbergs raised vegetables which supplied their needs and they sold the rest at first in Madison and later from their property. In addition to their house, their property contained a barn and a greenhouse that they used to start their plants. Albert died May 31, 1955 in Madison.
For several decades the house and land were home to gardeners and acrobats who used a large oak tree to the east of the house. This land became the first Community Supported Agriculture farm and more recently the land served as a neighborhood-based community garden supporting a large number of families. Finally, in September 2009 the house was demolished. While much of the former Anderberg property has be cleared and low-income housing built, the location of the former house is currently a forested area as of 2020.
Left: Pre 2010 photo of Drumlin Farms with Anderberg house on far right; Right: 2020 photo of same area
Fitchburg Historical Society 