| 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, State Historic Preservation Office.
This three-story, brick double house in the Italian Villa style with a central pavilion and nicely carved details was built in 1860. Another map code is 3/38 LUQS #393.
Excellent example of an Italianate residence in nearly original condition.
The house sits atop a raised "English basement," a common feature for row houses of the day. Each basement unit contained the dining room, kitchen, and utility rooms. The main floor contained a spacious, high-ceilinged parlor and a hall with a grand staircase leading to the top two floors. After fire gutted the doublehouse in 1984, its owners built an entirely new structure within the original exterior walls, but restored the exterior to its 1860 grandeur.
Set in one of Milwaukee's oldest commercial and residential areas, the Keenan House recalls the era preceding the advent of streetcars, when walking was the primary mode of urban transportation. Since people who walked needed homes near their workplaces, there was enormous pressure to build townhouses and doublehouses downtown, producing Milwaukee’s compact urban center. The choicest residences were closest to the city core, thus, this location for Keenan, a politician and insurance-company executive.
"Matthew Keenan, prominent Milwaukee businessman and politician, built this luxurious two-family home in 1860. Kitchens in the dwelling were located in the basement (a common practice in those days), parlors and dining rooms on the first floor. Bedrooms on the second story were heated by great marble fireplaces, still in place. A ballroom is said to have been on the third floor. Called "a model of elegance and comfort" in 1860, the double house has served a variety of functions since then, among them use as a detention home and as a little theater playhouse. Its current tenants are shops and offices." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
|---|
| Bibliographic References: | BUILT IN MILWAUKEE, LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, P. 140.
Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.
Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
|---|
