Welcome to Richland Center

Richland County is at the center of scenic Southwest Wisconsin, a land filled with the wonders of nature, of mankind, and of history.

The city has several great motels, like the White House Lodge and the national Super 8 Motel. At least a dozen other delightful places to stay are located throughout Richland County. The White House Lodge’s Supper Club offers a menu of exceptional steaks, chops, and seafood. More than 20 other restaurants dot the community and the county. They range from the popular fast food chains to places with such quaint names as "Bear Valley Vittles & Fixin’s" and "Henning’s Fish House."

Frank Lloyd Wright, widely recognized as the greatest architect of the 20th century, was born here and lived only a few miles away in Spring Green. There he built Taliesin, his famed home, and several other homes.

In Richland Center, he built a wondrous warehouse that stands as one of his early works. Highly reminiscent of a Mayan temple, The Warehouse is being renovated to make it a cultural and commercial center. A smart gift shop occupies the first floor and lower level. A tea room, an art gallery, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum occupy the second floor.

A drive through the Richland County countryside is as picturesque and eye-pleasing as any drive anywhere in the world. Roadways wind along the edges of green valleys, between towering, tree-covered hills. In most scenes, a stream cuts a squiggly path on the valley floor and widely spaced fine homes and photogenic family farms dot the land and climb the sides of the hills. Here and there is a natural wonder like Natural Bridge, Steamboat Rock, Elephant Rock, and Eagle Cave, Wisconsin’s largest onyx cave.

While driving, visitors frequently stop at one of the many fruit farms, cheese factories, craft shops, and artists’ studios found in Richland County. They come away with everything from antiques and original landscape oils to quaint wood carvings and handmade soap or a few pounds of tasty, freshly made and aged Wisconsin cheese. Many visitors will stay a night or two in the quiet comfort of one of the five elegant bed and breakfast establishments in the county. Traveling families enjoy stays at one of the six public and privately operated campgrounds in Richland County.

For history buffs, there are driving and walking tours of Richland Center’s nearly 30 historic buildings. Included are the 1889 courthouse, the 1873 Park Hotel, and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Warehouse. The Fred H. Pratt House may fool a few. It looks like a Wright design, but it is not. It’s the work of the LaCrosse architectural firm of Bentley and Merman. It is, however, a good example of the Prairie Schoolhouse design style from about 1920.