Property Record
4129 N Port Washington Rd
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Phenix Manufacturing Company |
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| Other Name: | Koss |
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| Reference Number: | 232633 |
| Location (Address): | 4129 N Port Washington Rd |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1946 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 20162019 |
| Historic Use: | industrial bldg/manufacturing facility |
| Architectural Style: | Art/Streamline Moderne |
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| Wall Material: | Brick |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | 2016 - One-story Contemporary style industrial building. The main office has a central entrance and curved corners. The industrial portion of the building has prominent trusses on the roof. Most windows appear to be glass block. 2019 - Only the front office portion of the building is of brick. The vast majority of the building is constructed of concrete block, including a 1955 addition, 60' x 158'. That addition does not have the trusses found on the 1946 roof. 2019 - Oriented on an east/west axis and facing N. Port Washington Road, which is east of the freeway, the great length of this 1946 industrial building is constructed of concrete block and notable for the prominent exterior roof trusses that help to eliminate interior structural elements that might affect the interior work space. The trusses notwithstanding, the stylistic component of the building is its Art Moderne front which is constructed of brick and notable for its two, rounded corners with large, glass block lights per side that terminate at and highlight the entrance framed by concrete panels. Two concrete bands envelope that part of the building, and convey the sense of sills and heads for the block windows, and glass pane windows to either side of the them and that are between the bands. The coping that crowns the wall is also a band of concrete. Behind this south brick wall, as the building extends west before turning north. Prominent on that brick wall extending north are three, imposing glass block lights with concrete sills. As the northeast corner is turned, the north wall extending to the was is constructed of concrete block. Phenix Manufacturing Company was issued on 15 March 1946 a permit for a new office and factory building. The engineer for the project was V.K. Boynton and the contractor was Geberhard-Berghrenner. Built on a spread of concrete foundation was a 570' long, 168' wide structure. A 60' long, 168' wide addition was constructed on the building's west end in 1955. It, too, was on a spread concrete foundation and erected by Bentley Construction. The building subsequently received a new roof in 1963, installed by contractor William C. Vick. Ownership of the building remained with Phenix Manufacturing, though with subsidiaries identified as such on various permits, until at least 1970 when Koss Stereophones rented the facility. Koss then bought the structure from Phenix. |
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| Bibliographic References: | City of Milwaukee Permit to Construct a New Building, 15 March 1946. City of Milwaukee Permit #169497, 25 March 1955. Architecture/History Survey of I-43 from Capitol Drive (south) to a point 2100' north of Hampton Avenue (north) in Milwaukee & Glendale, Milwaukee County, WI, July 1, 2019. WHS Project #19-1461, prepared by John N. Vogel. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |