Property Record
910 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr(AKA 910 N 3RD ST)
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Second Ward Savings Bank |
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| Other Name: | Milwaukee County Historical Center |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 16299 |
| Location (Address): | 910 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr(AKA 910 N 3RD ST) |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1913 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2004 |
| Historic Use: | bank/financial institution |
| Architectural Style: | Neoclassical/Beaux Arts |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | Kirchhoff & Rose |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Milwaukee County Historical Center |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/14/1973 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| 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 2/15/1983. HABS WI-256. Last surveyed in 1984 with a map code 148-12 on a survey map of LUQS 392 Originally opened as the Second Ward Savings Bank. Is currently the home of the Milwaukee County Historical Center. Built of Bedford stone, steel, and concrete; the interior was finished in Italian marble. This Beaux-Arts style bank building is one of the few structures in Milwaukee whose every elevation is as grandly detailed as a primary facade because important streets passed the site on all three sides. However, the portion of North Plankinton Avenue which ran along the east side of the building was closed years ago and is now part of a park that extends to the river. Since the 1960s, the building itself has housed the museum of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Each elevation has regularly spaced, Ionic half-column-fronted piers that front tall framed steel windows. A limestone balustrade crowns the former bank building. Its Renaissance style interior, largely intact, features a mezzanine encircling the central, two-story hall, formerly the bank lobby. Scagliola Ionic columns surround this atrium, echoing their exterior marble counterparts with plaster painted to resemble stone. "This was the third building erected for the Second Ward Savings Bank, which later became a branch of the First Wisconsin National Bank. In 1965 the bank donated its elegant building to the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Today, former bank vaults again hold irreplaceable treasure--the records of Milwaukee's past." 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: | BUILT IN MILWAUKEE, LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, P. 85. MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: KILBOURNTOWN, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 9/19/2003. "Downtown Milwaukee" Latus Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |