| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. LOCALLY DESIGNATED 11/9/1982. HABS WI-270. Large rear addition dates from 1955.
Milwaukee's Central Library marked the local triumph of Beaux-Arts architecture. It also marked a victory for Milwaukee's Ferry and Clas that won a nationwide design competition. Ferry and Clas's formal, symmetrical composition typifies the French-derived Beaux-Arts style. The idea of a colonnade over a base is as old as the seventeenth-century east front of the Louvre in Paris but that has less elaborate decoration. The library at the University of Leipzig, Germany, is said also to have provided inspiration. In any case, the library's shallow dome, classical forms, portico, and wealth of delicate carved ornament were all features favored by the influential architects trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
"When the Young Men's Association terminated its organization in 1878, its 10,000-volume private library became the nucleus of the Milwaukee Public Library. In 1882 some 19,000 natural history specimens were donated to the city for the Milwaukee Public Museum by Peter Engelmann. President of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, Engelmann had heretofore housed his vast collection in the German-English Academy, of which he was principal. The increasing collections of both library and museum gained this handsome new home during the 1890's. The building's exterior remains largely as it was seventy years ago. The main entrance lobby, recently refurbished, preserves an opulent late 19th-century flavor in the richly veined Siena marble, mahogany and oak woodwork, coffered dome, and mosaic floors." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Datestone.
MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: KILBOURNTOWN, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994.
Milwaukee Sentinel, April 14, 1898
Milwaukee Sentinel, June 12, 1898
Milwaukee Sentinel, October 4, 1898
Milwaukee Sentinel, October 8, 1898
Milwaukee Journal, September 30, 1898
Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.
Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
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