Property Record
1635 W NATIONAL AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Badger Mutual Insurance Co. |
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| Other Name: | Badger Mutual Insurance Co. |
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| Reference Number: | 103917 |
| Location (Address): | 1635 W NATIONAL AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1937 |
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| Additions: | 1947 |
| Survey Date: | 19852021 |
| Historic Use: | small office building |
| Architectural Style: | Art/Streamline Moderne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Cut Stone |
| Architect: | Herbert W.Tullgren; Grassold and Johnson-1947 addition |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| 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. Grassold & Johnson was the builder. Concrete Moderne office building. The streamlined appearance of this moderne style insurance company stands in bold contrast to Milwaukee’s other mutual insurance companies housed in classically inspired designs. Crisply sheathed in Bedford limestone, Badger Mutual’s home office was built in two stages: the first story in 1937 to mark fifty years in business; and its second story addition in 1947. The moderne first story features a balanced massing of streamlined block-like forms projecting from the low-slung building, each block vertically striped by a narrow window band. Vertical speed lines mimic stone piers astride its recessed central entry portal. Carved stone garlands above the entrance bracket its logo, a badger mounted on a shield, to underscore the low-relief moderne balloon lettering that identifies the company name. Badger Mutual's thirty-year-old building exemplifies an important early modern architectural style, popular for commercial and governmental buildings here and abroad from World War I through the depression years. Historians and critics have not yet named the style, but blocky, massive, uncompromising forms and stylized, low-relief ornament identify it. Representing building design of an earlier era in this neighborhood is the home at 1636 West National, a picturesque little 19th century cottage built of brick and embellished by a wide veranda." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A. Palmer, University Extension University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Walker's Point and South, 1969. Resurveyed in 2021 by UWM-CRM. Appearance unchanged. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Facade of building. Stylistic Analysis. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A. Palmer, University Extension University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Walker's Point and South, 1969. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |