Updated: August 6
T he Dawn Manor house may be moving but its owner is maintaining its historic flair, both in its reconstruction and future purpose.
Steve Uphoff, owner of Uphoff Resorts, purchased the house in 2017 from the Raab family, who had owned it for more than 70 years. Uphoff had all of the masonry, woodwork and stained glass from the mid-1800s home removed and stored and is having the house rebuilt on the south side of Lake Delton on Burritt Avenue, just north of its intersection with Alcan Drive.
The reconstructed house will be an 1800s-themed, 12,000-square-foot diner featuring an overlook facing the Mirror Lake Dam. It is being built with its original parts and a new frame, and is scheduled to open next spring.
Uphoff Resorts is partnering with Morrissey Hospitality to manage The Original 1855 Dawn Manor Restaurant. The restaurant will also feature a bar, a replica of a Prohibition-era speakeasy, an establishment which then-illegal alcohol sales took place, and a gift shop.
The Original 1855 Dawn Manor Restaurant will resemble the original house when its relocation project is finished. Owner Steve Uphoff and an Amish contractor Jacob Mast preserved original stonework, stained glass, woodwork, door knobs and many other components to rebuild the house and repurpose it as a restaurant.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CONSULTANTS
“Every detail of restoration has been carefully considered to present a historically accurate experience while being a part of antique art, furniture and furnishings of the period and once part of the original 1855 Dawn Manor home,” Uphoff said.
Ninety-four pallets containing original Potsdam Sandstone, stained-glass windows, and parts for an oak grand staircase original to the house, among numerous other components, were stored while Uphoff decided on a location for the rebuilt historic house.
The original Dawn Manor house was built on land on the east side of Lake Delton along Highway A in 1855.
DARA LEVINE
“We saved Dawn Manor,” Uphoff said. “We preserved this historical monument, the very last remnant of the lost city of Newport.”
Newport was a city located in northeast Sauk County during the 1800s and early 1900s, and the area it once occupied is currently part of Lake Delton.
The reconstructed three-story house will have a 249-person seating capacity and feature seven historically themed dining rooms. Antique furniture and artwork by former owner George Raab will be in the rooms.
George Raab III, the great-grandson of former owner Helen Raab, owned the house when Uphoff purchased it. The dining rooms will be named after the Raab Family, former President Abraham Lincoln, famed Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the late television actress Agnes Moorehead.
Lincoln, Wright and Moorehead reportedly spent time at the Dawn Manor house, Uphoff said, adding that the former president was friends with Abraham Vanderpoel, who built the house.
Another dining room will be called the Haunted Dining Room, which Uphoff said was inspired by reports from past owners that the house was haunted.
Two Wisconsin Dells area chefs, Justin Draper and Jayson Pettit, are putting together the menu for the upcoming restaurant.
The speakeasy is inspired by an Uphoff family-owned Wisconsin Dells-area bar in the 1930s and will be on the lower level of the Dawn Manor restaurant. The rebuilt house will also feature a 2,000-square-foot wraparound outdoor eating deck overlooking Mirror Lake and its dam, Uphoff said.
Uphoff worked with Amish contractor Jacob Mast, whose family spent more than two months removing the stonework from the building by hand in 2022.
Uphoff purchased the house and its land plot in 2017. In 2021, he sold the land to Kalahari Resorts and Conventions owner Todd Nelson but maintained ownership of the structure.
“Despite owning various business assets and restaurants across the country, this project is deeply personal to me,” said Uphoff. “Our family has been in the Dells since 1873, for six generations, and I grew up across the street from Dawn Manor. I have fond memories of this historic, one-of-a-kind house and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share this very special place with the public.”
Kalahari is building a resort expansion on the land where the historic house formerly stood, which will feature 21 “treehouses” — resort houses modeled after the nostalgic childhood structures — along with 31 additional lodging cabins.