| 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.
Originally Bertelson's photographic studio, one of Milwaukee's largest.
Excellent example of Spanish influenced terra cotta commercial building of this date in nearly original condition. Ornate terra cotta decorative elements.
Complete architectural and historical significance description in Milwaukee Landmarks nomination.
Milwaukee’s successful portrait photographer Helen Bertelson wanted an evocative building for her studio and home, so she hired Herbert Tullgren to create a Mediterranean Revival design decked out with terracotta ornament. Tullgren’s source for terracotta Spanish Colonial Revival components was American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Company. His design presents diamond-pattern colonettes flanking the elliptical arch store windows, walls covered with grotesque faces, squirrels, mythical beasts, and bowls of fruit giving the building a romantic appearance for Bertelson’s photography patrons. The second-story window bays clasp wrought-iron balconets, and shutters frame the windows capped by lintels adorned with foliage and putti motifs. Terra cotta medallions, wreaths, scrolls, plaques, and griffins stream across the frieze banding beneath its Spanish-tile pent roof tower. Picturesque massing, splendid detail, and handsome materials make the Bertelson Building one of the best-known commercial landmarks on Milwaukee’s busy upper east side. Many interior elements remain despite its conversion into apartments after Helen Bertelson died in 1954, and her children sold the building in 1956. The details include beamed ceilings, plaster walls textured to imitate adobe, and arches resting on rope-twist columns.
Bertelson’s home and studio draws ornamental parallels from the Watts Building at 717 N. Jefferson and the Tullgren Building at 5917 North Avenue, both designed by Herbert Tullgren, who had recently inherited his late father's architectural firm. The architect provided three storefronts and the studio on the first floor, and commercial space and office area on the second floor south half, with Bertelson’s apartment on its north side. |
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