In the past, I’d noticed that German Renaissance Revival mansion peeking up over the low retail space on the northeast corner of 26th and Wisconsin. But until yesterday, I hadn’t realized that they’re actually connected.
Up front, right at the sidewalk, there’s a two-story retail space that houses Boost Mobile, Golden Chicken and a check-cashing business. This building wraps around onto the west side of the property, too, along 26th Street.
I had assumed the entrance to the mansion, designed by Crane & Barkhausen and built by A. Kroening & Son in 1897 for distillery owner and wholesaler Gerhard Winner, was behind the retail structure. In fact, the retail structure – designed by Schneider & Schaefer – was added in 1952 as a used car showroom, something I learned from a great article John Gurda wrote about the building in 2014.
The retail space for a time housed the wonderfully named HiFi Fo Fum, owned by Jack Rosenberg.
A newspaper article published around 1897 – and shared by Greg Buscher – included a rendering of the mansion as it presumably originally appeared (it was drawn by the architects, and buildings sometimes looked a bit different by the time they were complete).
The article called the home, "one of the most completely appointed and beautiful residences to be erected this summer. ... The brick work will be in a dark brown, pressed brick. The outside trimmings for the first story (which we can no longer see) will be of Portage Entry red sand stone. Above the first floor the trimmings will be of terra cotta. The roof will be of slate with copper ridges and flashings. The interior will be finished with hard woods throughout."
Among those woods were curly red birch, quartered white oak and red oak, sycamore, gumwood. There were also Italian marble, nickel and other materials used in the interior details. It’s unclear what might survive inside, but I hope to get in there to see and will report back.
In the meantime the posts on social media drew a variety of responses, from "disgusting" and "what an abomination" to "it helped save the house" and "I like the new bit more than the old bit."
Folks may also remember a similar situation on the southeast corner of 20th and Wisconsin, where retail spaces had been built in front of another 1897 grand German Renaissance Revival home at 1925-33 W. Wisconsin Ave.
(PHOTO: Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society)
The shops and the home have since been razed and it's now a vacant lot. It's a case where the "new" buildings could not save the old one – nor itself – forever.
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.
