On Monday, Milwaukee Department of City Development was able to list a quintet of former Milwaukee Public Schools properties for sale as there had been no takers for them during the two-year period when only school operators could make offers on them.
The rule that said closed schools could initially only be offered for sale to school operators – read private charters and voucher schools – was passed by the State Legislature in 2015.
Because the requisite time elapsed on Saturday, the DCD was able to list these former schools, some of which were not originally built as schools (see notes below), for adaptive re-use as, say, apartments, offices, hotels or other uses. Click the link above to see details about submitting proposals.
Included are photos I’ve taken on my visits inside three of them. Click the links to see more on these places:
37th Street School/Former Bethune Academy
1715 N. 37th St.
Architect: George Birnbach
Year built: 1903
Listing price: $170,000
Wisconsin Avenue School
2708 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Architect: Van Ryn & DeGelleke
Year built: 1919
Listing price: $850,000
Phillis Wheatley/20th Street School
2242 N. 20th St.
Architect: Van Ryn & DeGelleke
Year built: 1902
Listing price: To be determined after appraisal
Centro Del Nino/Former Holton Street Bank
(PHOTO: Milwaukee Department of City Development)
500 E. Center St.
Architect: Moorman & Co.
Year built: 1927
Listing price: $223,000
(PHOTOS: Milwaukee Department of City Development)
School of Entrepreneurship/Former office building
(PHOTOS: Milwaukee Department of City Development)
6914 W. Appleton Ave.
Architect: Charles W. Luedtke
Year built: 1965
Listing price: $250,000
(PHOTOS: Milwaukee Department of City Development)
The former Isaac Coggs/5th Street School is currently being converted into apartments by Gorman and Co., which did the same sort of renovation of the former Peckham Junior High/Jackie Robinson Middle School. Gorman is also working to do another similar project at the former McKinley School on 20th and Vliet.
Dover Street School, in Bay View, which had been floated as a site for teacher housing, is being reopened next September as an expansion of the successful Howard Avenue Montessori. The former Carleton School on Silver Spring Drive has been sold to Rocketship, a California charter school operator, which plans to a open a second Milwaukee school there, perhaps under the oversight of MPS.
Sale of the former Frederick Douglass School, 3409 N. 37th St., to Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church is pending, according to the DCD website.
The former Garfield Avenue School, on 4th Street, is currently having its paint removed as part of a renovation that will include apartments and a new America's Black Holocaust Museum in Bronzeville.
The revealing of the cream city brick beneath the paint at the old Garfield Avenue School makes me happy: pic.twitter.com/VcBXDGfahQ — Bobby Tanzilo (@BobbyOnMKEcom) July 14, 2017
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
