May 2013
1 post
January 2013
4 posts
18 tags
Forty Years Ago, Deep Throat Took Milwaukee All... →
In an age of anything and everything being available on-demand from the cloud on multiple portable screens, it’s impossible to even KNOW what a big deal it was to see an X-rated movie — out in public — at a seedy adult theater — in the 1970s. Even more, it’s impossible to believe that a certain film was SO popular that a one-screen inner city neighborhood theater sold...
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Milwaukee Vice: Where the action was in 1972 →
Read the Milwaukee Sentinel’s November 6, 1972 remarkable state of the red-light nation, revisited by freelance writer Matthew Prigge for the August 8, 2012 Shepherd Express. After Blue Cross/Blue Shield redevelopment, Grand Avenue renewal, Wisconsin Center construction and Park East demolition, most of Fifth Street was neutered and erased from the downtown map. Not a single business...
December 2012
3 posts
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Lost Milwaukee: the St. Charles Hotel
For generations, one of the city’s leading residential hotels was the St. Charles Hotel (786 N. Water St.) Built in 1857 by Captain Uppmann, the 125-room St. Charles was among the oldest in the city when it was purchased and reconstructed by the Pabst family in 1895. The new building was an eastern anchor to a gorgeous, European-style City Hall Square that included the Blatz Hotel,...
November 2012
5 posts
12 tags
Lost Milwaukee: the Cross Keys Hotel
By 1964, the tired old building at the corner of Water Street and St. Paul looked like just another downtown dive waiting for the wrecking ball. After all, “slum clearance” in the Lower Third Ward had already rezoned 34 acres, razed 85 buildings, and relocated 359 families. Within a decade, the close-knit, colorful lifestyle of Milwaukee’s multi-generational “Little...
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Lost Milwaukee: the German American Bank Building
It’s hard to imagine the northeast corner of 2nd & National looking like this.
The German American Bank Building was the cornerstone of the intersection for almost 100 years before an arsonist burnt it down on September 10, 1986. Although the bank didn’t survive the Great Depression, the building continued to house Fifth Ward businesses and tenants. By the 1970s, its only tenant...
Lost Milwaukee: Convent Hill
What did the Park East corridor look like before the freeway?
Would you believe a European-style convent sat on Milwaukee and Ogden Streets, where novices gathered around goldfish-filled fountains in elaborate storybook gardens and stone grottos?
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In 1851, Mother Caroline arrived in Milwaukee with funding from King Louis of Bavaria to establish the first Motherhouse of the School...
Lost Milwaukee: the Triangle Building
Take a trip to the German Athens in this turn-of-the-century street scene from the triangle of Plankinton, Second and Wells, then a booming West Side commercial district. From this perspective, Milwaukee’s original Triangle Bar is a perfect companion to the brand-new Germania Building.
Wouldn’t you like to raise a stein here today?
Unfortunately, the Triangle Building vanished...
Lost Milwaukee: the Railroad Hotels of Union...
Back in the torrid days of rail travel, thousands of people arrived in Milwaukee every day at the Union Depot at 4th & Everett. Some were residents returning home from Chicago or St. Paul. Many were renegades riding the rails to find a better life anywhere that would have them. Fortunately for those characters, Union Square (now Zeidler Park) was surrounded by single-room occupancy...
June 2011
2 posts
Glimpses of the German Athens: Schloss Kalvelage →
The historic Kalvelage Mansion, 2432 W. Kilbourn Ave., will be open to the public for tours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 18 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 19.
Completed in 1896, Kalvelage Schloss (Castle) was designed for Joseph B. Kalvelage by architect Otto Strack. Inspired by German and French Renaissance, this structure is an architectural gem of Baroque character.
winged-serpent asked: Thanks for the follow. I was born in Milwaukee, so this is very interesting.
February 2011
1 post
16 tags
January 2011
19 posts
7 tags
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Lost Milwaukee: The Schandein Mansion
Brewery heiress Lisette Best Schandein’s golden years were filled with tremendous wealth — and tremendous controversy.
By the 1890s, Lisette was the most extraordinarily well-connected woman in Wisconsin: she was the daughter of Philip Best, founder of Milwaukee’s first breweries; the wife of Emil Schandein, founder of the Milwaukee Deutsche Gesellschaft; and the sister of Maria Best, the...
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the smoldering ruins of Detroit →
some of the most amazing photos of “America” you will see in your lifetime
14 tags
Ice Chalet brought poetry in motion to Mayfair... →
only 15 years ago…and it seems like a century
Demolition of the Paris Metro →
Explore the ghostly gorgeousness of underground Paris in this amazing photo series.
December 2010
7 posts
11 tags
Lost Milwaukee: Southgate
“Southgate has been a blight for some time now,” stated Alderwoman Annette Scherbert in the June 23, 1999 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But 48 years earlier, Southgate was the It Mall — and the scene of retail history in the making.
“Southgate’s family party was such a success Thursday that the hosts could hardly believe it,” cried the Milwaukee Journal. With the release of...
9 tags
The Secret History of Capitol Court →
CAPITOL COURT CENTER, originally an open-air venue, was developed by Ed Schuster and Company and designed by Seattle’s John Graham, Jr. . The 745,000 square foot, $20 million dollar shopping hub was a single-level structure with a service basement / arcade level.
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Lost Milwaukee: The Kooky Cooky House
Capitol Court shopping center opened in 1956 at the intersection of Capitol Drive, 60th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue, then considered to be Milwaukee’s “golden triangle” for retail development.
Despite being surrounded by 500,000 potential shoppers within a five mile radius, family favorite Capitol Court was abandoned and razed 45 years later.
It’s funny. When you ask people what they...
