A former hospital on Milwaukeeâs East Side has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
It joined the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places in March.
Milwaukee's Historic Preservation Commission undertook the local review of the NRHP application for the the landmarking of the former Lakeview Hospital, 1749 N. Prospect Ave., on Feb. 5.
The 2.5-story building dates to 1876, when it was constructed as a frame mansion with a gabled roof for William H. Bradley of Bradley Brothers Lumber Co. Although it’s not easy to see from outside, since the building was clad in limestone in 1904 (replacing a brick veneer), the original structure does still remain.
That 1904 makeover, designed by architects Fernekes & Cramer, was for new owner, John H. Frank, of Goll & Frank dry goods.
Frank also served as president of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
But the building also served as home to J. Raymond Meyer’s Milwaukee Institute of Music in the 1920s and the Modern Orchestral Studios Music School in the ‘30s (at a time when Prospect Avenue seemed to have no shortage of music schools).
In 1944, local osteopathic doctors Fred Hecker, Carl Blech and Paul Alterley converted the Classical Revival building into the 17-bed Lakeview Hospital and a few years later, the building underwent more changes.
“The hospital constructed a two-story eastern addition in 1950 to accommodate more patients,” notes the application for designation. “It was built in a sympathetic style and clad with limestone.
“The addition features applied Classical Revival detailing around the primary entrance which is still intact and visible. As such, Lakeview Hospital retains integrity of workmanship.”
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s architectural inventory, the hospital could accommodate 38 patients. WHS also notes that by 1965 the hospital had 50 beds, delivered 7,0000 babies and performed 15,000 operations.
The hospital moved to a four-story building in Wauwatosa in 1965 and St. Joseph's Hospital Bluemound began managing it in 1997.
The application form points out that the feeling of a hospital survives in the Prospect Avenue building.
“It retains the layout of a small, early hospital with a central foyer surrounded by few patient rooms and offices, before osteopaths could comfortably practice in conventional institutions.”
But, the nomination form also notes that aspects of the original use of the building, which in more recent years has served as offices (including for Mueller Communications), also endure.
“Lakeview Hospital opened in 1944 in a former lumber baron’s mansion,” it says. “Therefore, the exterior is indicative of a former residence, while the interior layout retains former private patient rooms and offices organize around a central foyer. Some of these rooms retain original decorative plaster ceilings, which would have been typical of a mansion but not of a hospital.
“These details show the realities of an early hospital in a building constructed for a different purpose. These details remain, and Lakeview Hospital retains the feeling of an early hospital that operated within a former residential building.”
The HPC review, says Historic Preservation Commission Senior Planner Tim Askin, was more or less a formality.
“We are not strictly required to review,” he said at the time, “but we're strongly encouraged to have a public discussion of these nominations and (the public is) entitled to a 60-day comment period in which to do so.”
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.
