Rehabilitated Building Re-Captures its Cream City Charm | Wisconsin Historical Society

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Rehabilitated Building Re-Captures its Cream City Charm

Birchard-Follansbee Block, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Rehabilitated Building Re-Captures its Cream City Charm | Wisconsin Historical Society
EnlargeExterior of commercial main street brick buildings.

Birchard and Follansbee Block, 1996

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Block prior to restoration. View the property record: AHI 95546

When Alanson Follansbee built his large four-story corner building in 1867, he topped it with a mansard roof, reflecting the popular French Second Empire style. In 1899 new owners, the Birchard family, remodeled the building. They added to the corner-most portion of the building, removed the mansard, and rebuilt the fourth floor in brick and stone. They also added a fifth floor and a bracketed cornice, thus changing the building from Second Empire to Italianate. Today, the corner portion reads as a separate building, which it is in fact for all intents and purposes. The remaining portions of the building still have the original mansard roof.

EnlargeExterior of brick building after cleanup.

Birchard and Follansbee Block, 2012

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Block after restoration. View the property record: AHI 95546

The building, located in Milwaukee's East Side National Register Historic District, housed many commercial uses over the years. Longtime owner Reckmeyer Furs bought the building in 1939 and maintained it well, for the most part, until the business closed in 1996. The company did modernize the store in 1954, adding a contemporary storefront of black marble and aluminum. On the interior it added bare modern finishes, including gleaming mirrored column covers.

In 2000, Johnson Bank bought the building and began converting all five floors to become its Milwaukee office. The new owner chemically cleaned the brick, so that it now lived up to Milwaukee's "Cream City" name. The storefront's glass transom was opened up, the display windows and entry doors were rebuilt in wood, and a historically-appropriate storefront cornice was constructed. The black marble was replaced with stone pilasters to match the historic stone.

Inside was the biggest surprise. The furred out walls, dropped ceiling, and mirrors on the columns were removed to reveal ornate window trim, a wood beaded-board and beamed ceiling, and classical columns with Ionic capitals. Designers used these time-honored details as a foil for the modern office interior. The bank used the architecture of the old building to reinforce a corporate image of longevity and stability.

Read more about the history of Milwaukee's Birchard and Follansbee Block in the property record on our website.