At its meeting on Monday, the City of Milwaukee's Historic Preservation Commission unanimously granted permanent landmark status to a pair of former Gettelman brewery buildings at 4400 W. State St.
Last month, the HPC bestowed temporary designation on the former Gettelman malting building and an adjacent office, which are now owned by MillerCoors. One of the last lagering caves in the city is located beneath the malting building.
Some further background can be found here, and a detailed historic preservation report prepared by the city on the structures can be downloaded as a PDF here.
The designation doesn't mean the structures – built around 1856 and 1858 – can't be demolished, but it makes the process more challenging.
MillerCoors, which had planned to tear down the two buildings to make room for a parking lot and truck depot, has the right to appeal the decision to the Common Council.
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.
