Property Record
2103-2109 W KILBOURN AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Clark Row House |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 17085 |
| Location (Address): | 2103-2109 W KILBOURN AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1893 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1983 |
| Historic Use: | row house |
| Architectural Style: | Neoclassical/Beaux Arts |
| Structural System: | Balloon Frame |
| Wall Material: | Clapboard |
| Architect: | Chas. Fitzgerald |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | Yes |
| Demolished Date: | 1987 |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Clark Row House |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 4/27/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Multiple Resources of West Side Area |
| 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 property has been demolished and was removed from the National Register on 4/27/1989. DESCRIPTION: Clark Row is a rectangular, flat roofed, three-story, frame block of townhouses, sited at the edge of the sidewalk on the southwest corner of North 21st Street and West Kilbourn Avenue. The barracks-like appearance of the building is relieved by the few classical features sparingly applied to the Kilbourn Avenue elevation including a modillion cornice, window caps and most notably, the door enframements with their Ionic pilasters and classical entablatures with a festoon frieze and bracketed cornice. The fenestration consists of various types of double hung windows with differing light configurations. The three entrances are recessed within panelled vestibules. Rock-faced limestone foundations and narrow clapboard siding clad the exterior of the structure. The only exterior modification had been the addition of metal fire escapes across the entire upper facade of the building. Clark Row was demolished in August of 1987 by the current owners, Good Samaritan Medical Center. ARCHITECTURAL/ENGINEERING SIGIFICANCE: Clark Row is architecturally significant as a unique frame block of townhouse flats. It is Milwaukee's only surviving example of a frame multi-unit building of this type. Other row house examples of this scale and craftsmanship including Abbott Row (NRHP-1983), Graham Row (NRHP-1979) and Starke Row included in this nomination as part of the Kilbourn Avenue Row House Historic District, were exclusively of masonry construction. In form, design and materials, Clark Row is an exceptional and early example of a late nineteenth century row house illustrating the trend away from the picturesque Queen Anne style to the single boxy shapes of the Colonial Revival. It may be the earliest expression to the pure Colonial Revival in Milwaukee. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: Clark Row was built at a cost of $6,000 in 1893 by E. F. Clark as an income property. The builder was A. Henze and the designer was Charles Fitzgerald, a domestic architect who was active in the 1890s designing houses, duplexes, row houses and flats. Fitzgerald's known work at the period consisted mostly of Colonial Revival or Classical Revival detailed Victorian structures designed for members of Milwaukee's large Irish community. The units in Clark Row were rented primarily to middle-income white collar workers. The building is now used as a rooming house. |
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| Bibliographic References: | . |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |