Property Record
1925 W NATIONAL AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Pythian Castle Lodge |
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| Other Name: | Crystal Palace |
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| Reference Number: | 103936 |
| Location (Address): | 1925 W NATIONAL AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1927 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19852021 |
| Historic Use: | social recreational/fraternal hall |
| Architectural Style: | Spanish/Mediterranean Styles |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | Richard E. Oberst |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Pythian Castle Lodge |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 2/25/1988 |
| 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, State Historic Preservation Office. 1920s period design employing some Spanish Colonial Revival motifs. No original building permit on file. Architect Richard Oberst's eclectic design incorporates Spanish Colonial architectural details, including its scrolled gables, red-tile roof, and embellishments surrounding the arched, double-door entrance framed by rope-twist columns and inverted scrolled console brackets. Its elaborate stone window surround rises to the second story. The lodge housed a chapter of the Knights of Pythias, once the third largest fraternal organization in America. Fraternal organizations once served an integral social role for many American men. The Pythians socialized in this building, practicing fraternal rituals and planning charitable activities. Their life insurance benefits available to club members made it particularly attractive to working-class men. Like many fraternal organizations nationwide, Knights of Pythias membership declined during the Great Depression, when poverty strained resources, and government assumed welfare responsibilities. The decline of fraternal organizations continued apace after World War II. These Pythians rented their hall out to labor unions in the 1950s, but declining finances forced the lodge to disband in 1980. "Members of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal-social secret society founded in Washington D.C., held their first meeting in Milwaukee in 1871. In 1890 Milwaukee was the scene of a vast tent city erected to house 12,000 Knights attending their national convention here. National Lodge was organized in 1897 for members living south of the Menomonee River and thirty years later built the fanciful, Spanish-influenced Pythian Castle on West National Avenue." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A. Palmer, University Extension University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Walker's Point and South, 1969. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Permit. 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 |