Last Monday, I wrote to tell you that this Monday – today, that is – the restored Iron Block Building at Water and Wisconsin would be unveiled.

You can find details of the restoration and the building's history in last week's blog, but I wanted to check back in to let you know how the finished product looks.

After years of seeing the building clothed in stark white paint – and most recently – hidden behind scaffolding – it's nice to see a subtler tone and a copper brown on the storefront and mezzanine levels.

It's also great that restorers didn't attempt to "hide" the cream city brick addition to the south. Instead of painting it to match – as in the past – that structure, best seen from Water Street has been cleaned down to its original brick.

The addition shares the Iron Block's cornice, but at street level, the facade is plainly different, which leads the up to the upper floors where it's equally obvious that the building is executed in an entirely different style.

Also back are many ornamental details that required refabrication and restoration. I love the iron rectangles of squiggly lines – which I remember from my days working in the building – but was surprised to see the lion's heads dangling grapevines from their mouths. If these were on the building before, I admit I'd never noticed them.

Take a walk Downtown soon and check out the restored building, which is a Milwaukee jewel. Plan to spend a little time checking out the details of the ornate facade. Bring binoculars.

As it nears its 130th birthday, Eighth Street School on the corner of 8th and Michigan in Downtown Milwaukee, is getting a makeover.

It is humdrum news perhaps, but a development that affects everyone who passes by the building, designed by architect Henry C. Koch (City Hall, Turner Hall, The Pfister, Gesu Church, etc.) and erected in 1884.

Believe it or not, Koch’s building, despite its age, is the third school to have been located on the site. Two earlier Fourth Ward schools had short life spans. The first was put up in 1850 and its replacement followed just seven years later. That building got additions in 1866 and 1874 but within a couple years was again problematic.

And before long the district’s annual report noted, "[Fourth Ward School] is the oldest building now in use and it is rapidly reaching a condition when it will have to be thoroughly reconstructed or deserted. It has been remodeled internally several times; has had additions made to it; is insufficiently lighted and heated; has no provisions for ventilation; and has outside privies with the most imperfect sewerage. The rooms used for Primary grades are especially objectionable. The ceilings are too low, and the effects of wet weather are plainly visible upon the walls, on account of there being no excavation under the building…These statements, which have been put in their mildest form, amount to a condemnation of the building. There cannot be the least question as to its unsuitableness for school purposes."

Koch’s design won a competition and among the photos above you can see Ferry & Clas’ suggestion for a new Fourth Ward School. That design shared some features of the celebrated architects’ old Wisconsin Avenue school on the northwest corner of 27th and Wisconsin (razed and replaced nearly a century ago).

While the current building was being constructed, students met in the old Exposition Building (replaced by the Auditorium on 6th and Kilbourn).

Since it opened in October 1884, …

Recently, I read a book about the Gateway Arch in St. Louis that lamented the 40-square block neighborhood razed to make room for the arch and its park. In that area was the country's – and likely the world's – greatest concentration of 19th century buildings with iron facades.

Because we in Milwaukee know how lovely the Italian Renaissance revival Iron Block Building is, I can only imagine what St. Louis lost in that massive demolition.

Thankfully, our Iron Block, 205 E. Wisconsin Ave., remains on the corner of Water and Wisconsin.

Next Monday, June 17, the long-masked building will be unveiled after a full year of reconstructive work.

The building, designed by architect George H. Johnson, was erected in 1860 and the facade was made from pre-fabricated cast iron pieces that mimicked ornate carved masonry. Russell Zimmerman called it Milwaukee's only cast iron building and it is believed to be the only surviving example anywhere in the state.

It was such a novelty when it opened in 1861 that Milwaukeeans began calling it "The Iron Block," a moniker that has become official over the years. The building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.

Zimmerman pointed out in his 1980 "Heritage Guidebook" that The Cary Building is an almost identical twin in lower Manhattan at Chambers and Reade Streets.

I have a special affinity for the building, in which I worked for a few years in the middle of the 1990s. It had been newly renovated at that point after having fallen a bit down on its luck. The building was legendary a couple decades earlier for having stellar parties.

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, Mayor Tom Barrett, Ald. Robert J. Bauman, building owner Dental Associates President Dr. Thomas Manos, Architect Mark Demsky and Historic Milwaukee, Inc. Executive Director Anna-Marie Opgenorth will be on hand for the unveiling.

Expect to be wowed. For this restoration, Milwaukee and Beloit foundries were hired to recreate original decorative pieces l…

There are some house types in the city that simply say, "Milwaukee."

Blocks upon blocks upon blocks of Polish flats and tall Victorian duplexes with broad porches and bungalows populate neighborhoods across town. If you're lucky, your neighborhood also has a surviving stock of 19th century Cream City homes (yeah, I'm talking to you Walker's Point).

In some neighborhoods, toward which money tended to flow and then pool, there are dramatically different styles, from French chateaus along Lake Drive to unique Mediterraneans in the Highlands.

Head further afield and the post-World War II boom led to entire neighborhoods filled with detached Cape Cods.

What fascinates me are the hints at row houses in Milwaukee. Many older Brew City neighborhoods – Walker's Point, Bay View, the East Side – have traces of the kind of row house culture that defines many East Coast cities. But row upon row of townhouses never really seemed to catch on here, likely because Milwaukee was never really crunched for space.

If there were examples of long rows of identical, attached houses, they're gone now.

Some of the better-known – and loveliest – examples are on the lower East Side, on the northwest corner of Knapp and Astor, along Lyon Street and, of course, Ogden Row (1019-1043 E. Ogden Ave.), over which most people I know often salivate at the idea of owning.

More workaday versions are in Bay View on Logan Avenue and on Allis Street. There are some great ones scattered around Walker's Point, like the row of five on 10th and Pierce.

Others that hint at row house culture – though likely were never intended to be built in attached rows – can be found on KK in Bay View (see photo above) and scattered along Kilbourn Avenue near the Marquette campus.

Much of the more recent development along Ogden Avenue has been row houses and the King Commons project is bringing newly constructed bursts of row housing to the area to the north and west of the intersection of King Drive and C…