As today, Milwaukee has always had a rich cultural life with iconic institutional structures to house them. This week we present photographs of a few of those cultural institutions along with current photographs if two structures that still stand today. The older photographic images, ca. 1890, are from our very rare bound set of 100 photographic plates, Milwaukee Illustrated, published in Milwaukee by J.C. Iversen & Co. You may also find a digitized copy in our digital collection, Milwaukee Neighborhoods. From top to bottom, the buildings are:
1.) Exposition Building, exterior and interior (first four images): The Milwaukee Exposition Building was designed by one of Milwaukee's most prolific architects, Edward Townsend Mix, and was built in 1881, serving as the first home of the Milwaukee Public Museum. It occupied an entire block between 5th and 6th Streets and Kilbourn Avenue and State Street. It burned down in 1905 and the Milwaukee Auditorium (currently Miller High Life Theatre) was built on the site in 1909. The first two interior views show the natural history exhibits of the Milwaukee Public Museum (which moved to a new building with the Milwaukee Public Library in 1898), and the last view shows the interior during the ethnic festival of Kermis, a traditional Dutch summer fair that immigrants from Holland brought with them to Milwaukee. The pavilion pictured here is selling Brussels Waffles, a precursor to the Belgian waffle made popular in the United States in the 1950s.
2.) Turner Hall (on the left) and Robert Chivas Post Hall: Milwaukee Turner Hall, (Turnverein), a center for gymnastics and social and cultural life of German immigrants in Milwaukee, was designed by architect Henry C. Koch and was completed in 1882, with an addition in 1899. It remains an important Milwaukee cultural institution today (see contemporary photo below the historic image) and the hall is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Robert Chivas Post Hall (Grand Army of the Republic. Robert Chivas Post No. 2) was named after a lieutenant in the 24th Wisconsin, who was killed at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. It is most notable for the 1886 meeting held there prior to striking workers marching to Bay View to protest excessive working hours. This led to the May 5, 1886 Bay View Massacre. The land where the post stood now serves as a parking lot for Turner Hall.
3.) Grand Opera House: Prominent Milwaukee businessman Jacob Nunnemacher and his son Hermann built the Grand Opera House in 1871, spanning an entire block and standing three stories high. It was later sold to noted Milwaukee brewer Frederick Pabst in 1890, but the theater was destroyed by fire in 1895. It was rebuilt quickly in the same year and is now known as Pabst Theater, which is still in operation today.
4.) Milwaukee Club: Founded in 1882, the Milwaukee Club became the first continuously-operating men’s club west of the Allegheny Mountains. The club's building was designed in the Queen Anne style by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, with the construction supervised by Milwaukee's Edward Townsend Mix (mentioned above) and completed in 1883. It remains the club's headquarters today (see the contemporary photo) at the corner of Jefferson and Wisconsin.
