30: The Empire Building and the Riverside
View Larger Map Previously the site of the Old Empire Hotel and Tavern, the twelve story structural steel building was constructed in 1928 at the northeast corner of West Wisconsin and North Plankinton. The building was designed by Charles Kirchoff Jr. and Thomas Leslie Rose also responsible the former Second Street Bank currently home to the Milwaukee County Historical Society. The →
29: Dr. D. J. Brown Building and the Italianate Style
The 700 block of North Milwaukee Street stands as a testament of Milwaukee’s central business district just following the Civil War with an incredible assemblage of small-scale Italianate commercial buildings. Beginning at the northeast corner of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the street tells the tale of Victorian architectural progression containing adjacent blocks built chronologically from 1866 to 1877. The building currently →
28: Alley House
Taking a walk through the alleys of Riverwest is like stepping into another world, seeing the neighborhood from another side, from the inside of the block. Unlike the garage oriented alley that I grew up on, the alleys in Riverwest are nearer to side roads of the regularly traversed streets, lined with small houses hidden from view. Tucked away along →
26: Zamka Furniture
As early as the 1870s, a growing Polish east side existed between Brady Street and the river; consequently, St. Hedwig congregation was founded in 1871. By the 1890s, Brady Street’s second generation was spreading across the river to the Polish north side centered at Clarke and Bremen. Subsequently, St. Casimir’s parish was established in 1893, and in the following year, →
25: At the Tracks
Tracks tavern has been a Riverwest institution for over 40 years, and 1020 East Locust itself has housed a neighborhood saloon for 105 years. The white stucco façade and the one story addition along the south and east facades divert attention from the original fabric that lies beneath. Constructed along the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railroad, the saloon was →
24: Foundation
According to the Assessor’s office, Foundation was constructed in 1893. The building is a beautiful example of folk architecture common in the Riverwest and Brady Street areas. The street facing façade is simply composed with one central attic window and three evenly placed windows at the second story framed by simple late nineteenth century lintels. A simple cornice separates the →
23: Rayfield Apartments
I have long been curious about the apartment building at 1225-1229 East Wright. It stands out amidst its neighbors, this strange rectangular box unlike any of the surrounding fabric. The flat roof and lack of detail or composition imply a sort of pioneering minimalism as though it were built out of necessity. However, that is not the case, the pioneering →
22: Sydney Hih
A long-standing enigma on Milwaukee’s landscape, Sydney Hih, is hard to miss. It stands alone as one of few to survive the wake of Park East Freeway. The freeway spur was constructed in the 1960s and removed around 2002 leaving a baron strip of vacant lots north of downtown where Sydney Hih stands alone. Sydney Hih is a collection of →
21: Holton Street State Bank
Riverwest’s first commercial district was centered along Clarke Street at the foot of St. Casimir. One block north, Center Street would rise as Riverwest’s thriving commercial district in the 1920s. A noticeable aesthetic difference exists between Center and Clarke Street dating their time of fruition. Two story wood frame buildings stand at the sidewalks edge along Clarke Street, the storefronts →
20: The Great Saloon Era
Saloons and taverns have forever been a place of nostalgia and socialization. As such, Milwaukee’s unique building stock is due in part to the breweries that have earned us the moniker, Brew City. Between the 1880s and 1907, Milwaukee’s breweries built company saloons through out the City leased and operated by proprietor’s who sold the breweries’ products exclusively. The company →
19: Shenanigans
View Larger Map The unassuming building at the corner of North Arlington Place and Brady Street has a long history dating to the start of the Polish neighborhood that once thrived between Brady Street and the river. St. Hedwig was the center of the Polish neighborhood; aside from spiritual health, the parish was a center for social activity in the community. →
18: Sherman Perk
Recently I had the pleasure of attending Ex Fabula's Terminal Milwaukee Event at Sherman Perk Coffee Shop, 4924 West Roosevelt Drive. A former gas station turned coffee shop, the venue was selected for its incredible community history and role in the Sherman Park neighborhood. In addition, the Moderne service station is an incredible example of a seemingly impossible adaptive reuse, →
17: Turner Hall Ballroom
In the vein of promoting great adaptive reuses that participate in our everyday, or at least every-weekend lives, I look to Turner Hall. A building that is of great significance to Milwaukee’s German heritage, the Turner Society, social and political reform, the arts, and now music. A building that was almost lost first to fire and then the wrecking ball →
16: The Avalon
View Larger Map Milwaukee once boasted a grand array of movie palaces: the Princess, the Butterfly, the Zenith; each complete with a dazzling marquee and elaborately lit sign to draw in the crowds. The movie theater became the social hub of life in the 1920s and 1930s, a respite from the doldrums of day-to-day life. It was about this time in →
15: The Harnischfeger
Though I no longer pass by the Harnischfeger on a daily basis, I used to. As a student at Marquette (for one year only) and working at Mayfair Mall (argh), I commuted west along Wisconsin Avenue and was awe-struck by this dark, mysterious, beautiful structure standing so out of place, so unloved. It was unlike any that I had encountered, →
14: Newspaper Row
On the north side East Mason between Water Street and Broadway, at 216-222 East Mason Street, two buildings stand to attest to what was once referred to as Newspaper Row. The block between Water and Broadway once contained the headquarters of as many as fifteen different magazines and newspapers including the pre-cursors to our current paper, the Milwaukee Sentinel and →
Day 12: The Five and Ten
Before it was Brocach, it was the Five and Ten Tavern. A place to belly up to the bar for cheap beers, fish fry wrapped in newspaper to go, and hamburgers flipped on a grill behind the bar. A place that conjures up fond memories of a dive, but a nice dive that is chocked full of nostalgia and admiration →
Day 11: The Bertelson Building
At the northwest corner of Prospect Avenue and Windsor Place stands a beautiful rendition of the Mission or Spanish Revival Style popular in Milwaukee during the late 1920s. Constructed in 1927 according to the designs of Martin Tullgren & Sons, the Bertelson Building exemplifies the style with its clay tile roof, round arch entryways and windows, and relief carving. The →
Day 10: Remember Kohl’s Food Store?
Whatever happened to Kohl’s Food Stores: a question that strangely has arisen several times in the last few weeks. Kohl’s Food Stores are a distant memory of my early childhood on 67th and Villard. I’m not sure which one was closest, but I remember shopping there. However, by the time I returned to Milwaukee in 2003, they were gone. Yesterday my →
Day 9: The Wherehouse
The blocks east of South First Street are a window into Walker’s Point industrial fabric. In the late 1880s and 1890s, Walker’s Point transitioned from a landscape of retail shops and hostelries spurred by the passenger station on South Second Street, Union Depot. By 1886 the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and the Milwaukee Road had constructed separate depots downtown. Construction →
Day 8: Gordon Park and the West Bank
At the northeast corner of GordonPark, a paved road leads downhill to the river and a trail along the west side of the bank. The trail at the foot of the path provides a secluded spot for bird watchers, dog walkers, mountain bikers, and urban hikers alike; a brief retreat from the city streets that lie above. The paved road →
Day 7: Red Dot
Tucked away at the southeast corner of Bradford and Bartlett, stands a wonderful turetted building similar to those commonly found in Riverwest. The building was originally constructed in 1895, and to the best of my knowledge, has forever been a tavern. Judging by it’s architectural character and the names of two owner-operators, Olikowski and Trzuskowski, the neighborhood may have celebrated →
Day 6: Michigan Street
I’m dusting off a post that never materialized in light of a conversation had last night concerning 210 East Michigan. A friend of mine was asking some questions which I was more than happy to oblige when it dawned on me that the 200 block of East Michigan Street is spectacular, but lightly traversed. It contains five buildings constructed over →
Day 5: Bay View Brew Haus
Back to a good ol’ fashioned history. Bay View Brew Haus, the location of ExFabula’s third season kickoff Story Slam and the object of Day 5, has a history that dates back to 1868, technically. The building itself was constructed between 1907 and 1908 as the first constructed Masonic Lodge for Lake Lodge No. 189. The Lodges roots date to →