| 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.
HABS WI-250. Machek was a wood carver and was presented with a silver medal by the King of Serbia for his work on the Belgrade palace. Don Nasgowitz owned the house after Machek.
This house marked a labor of love for master woodcarver Robert Machek. In his native Vienna, Machek worked for Austrian and Serbian royal families, even winning a medal for his work on the Royal Palace in Belgrade. After immigrating to Milwaukee in 1890, Machek continued featuring his skills. In 1893, he bought a sixteen-year-old Victorian cottage and turned it into a romantic hunting lodge. The light stucco exterior walls, are crossed with high-contrast, dark-stained false half-timbering. Wooden wall coverings imbue warmth and coziness–using decorative shingling on the front gable and dark paneling at the basement level and on some of the window bays. Machek lovingly carved an elaborate wooden surround for each window, each one distinct, and borrowing design elements from different architectural traditions. Tiny, carved human heads peek out beneath the small windows on the gables, and others watch from the front porch arches.
The house's interior, replete with ornamental woodwork and cabinetry, provides additional proof of Machek's outstanding talents. A large, two-story garage addition on the north side of the house, built in 1971, blends sympathetically with the original construction.
"Reminiscent of the half-timbered rustic cottages and hunting lodges of Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe this Old World jewel box of a house was built by wood carver Robert Machek as a celebration of and public advertisement for his craft. In Europe, Machek was a noted Viennese craftsman who is said to have worked for the Hapsburgs. In 1884, he was awarded the Silver Medal by King Milan I of Serbia for his outstanding work on the Royal Palace at Belgrade. In spite of his apparent success in Eastern Europe, Machek emigrated to this country in the late 1880s and first appeared in Milwaukee in 1890 working as a cabinetmaker and a carpenter.
In March of 1893 Machek purchased the house at the northwest corner of 19th and McKinley Streets from Charles Thurow, who had lived at this location since around 1877. In the years following his purchase, Machek enriched and embellished the small house, transforming it from a modest American Victorian cottage to a fanciful European Villa. Highly decorative half-timbering was added to the exterior, and each window opening was transformed into an individual work of art embellished with a variety of pediments, pilasters, brackets and strapwork so that no two are alike. Looking more closely, one can see small whimsical heads peeking out from below the small windows of the front and side gables and from the arches at the front porch. Exuberant carved woodwork is also found on the house's interior. The large, matching, attached garage to the north was built in 1971, almost doubling the size of the house. The beautiful old wrought iron fence is one of the handsomest in the city.
It is not known whether Machek worked at his craft independently of as an employee of a millwork or furniture-making firm. Apparently dissatisfied with his life in Milwaukee, Machek left his wife, Mary, and his son, Arthur, in 1907 and moved to Denver and later to California, where he died in 1920. His widow died at the house in 1941 followed by her son in 1945. Once surrounded by other Victorian houses, the Machek house alone survived the destruction of its neighborhood by urban renewal in the 1960s. It now stands amid a tract development of 1960s suburban style houses as a tribute to the tireless efforts of the current owners who valiantly saved it from demolition and have lovingly preserved it." MILWAUKEE ETHNIC HOUSES TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT, 1994.
Covenant/Easement: From 6/30/1978 to 6/30/1998. A 'covenant file' exists for this property. It may contain additional information such as photos, drawings and correspondence. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. |
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