The Koepsells were a Pomeranian (German) family who migrated to Washington County in 1857. The house was constructed in the same way as the Kilbourntown House, heavy timber framing with brick infill, except for this was not sided, the timbers and brick are the very outside of the structure. This shows the difference between country settling and city/in town settling. While similar construction methods tie the two together, Benjamin Church would have been more concerned with appearance being in the city closer to his neighbors and holding a higher social position.David Handlin writes a good chunk about why early settler architecture (most of what is seen at Old World Wisconsin) varies so much from building to building as well as the lack of refinement. He writes this about seventeenth and eighteenth century settlers, however the reasoning hold true for the examples shown at Old World Wisconsin, which were mostly from the nineteenth century. Settlers were coming over from different backgrounds, moving to different areas, and were often few and far between. Farm houses and other country buildings were usually built as temporary, the families not knowing how long they could/would be staying. If they ended up staying there indefinitely, they added on as the family grew (Handlin, 14-15, 22).
This is what happened at the Lowell Damon House in Wauwatosa, WI. The main square in the plan below is the original house, then the front larger rectangle was added later on as one of Lowell's sons started a family.
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