Several Ringling homes still exist in and around Baraboo. Perhaps the most elegant and stunning is Al Ringling’s former home, which was built in 1900 and is one block off the Court House Square on Broadway. The house is now owned by the Elks Club, which has worked toward restoring the mansion.
August Ringling’s home is located at 210 Second Avenue. Gus Ringling’s home, now privately owned, stands at the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and Birch Street.
Alfred T. Ringling’s first wife, Della, donated his spacious downtown home to the Catholic Church, and it became Ringling St. Mary’s Hospital. The home, formerly located at 103 Tenth Street, has since been razed.
Alf T.’s country chalet, located on his former farm between Baraboo and Portage, was demolished in 2002. The 350-acre farm, which is currently owned by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, now comprises a large carriage shop, a concrete swimming pool (likely built by a later owner), a barn, and other farm buildings. At one time the fields grew hay that was hauled to Ringlingville and fed to the circus’s several hundred horses and other hay-eating animals.
Charles Ringling’s Colonial Revival home on the corner of Ash and Eighth Streets was sold to Henry Ringling after Charles’s death. It boasts a nearby carriage house and servant quarters with spacious lawns. All the buildings were once white. A Ringling descendent still lives in the house.
The Ringling farm, on Lynn Avenue, includes a modest house and one of the Ringling horse barns. Most of the land has been sold and developed for other purposes.
All of these properties are privately owned and not open to the public, but several can be viewed from the street.1