Property Record
2363 N 113TH ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Zeddie Quitman Hyler House |
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| Reference Number: | 240739 |
| Location (Address): | 2363 N 113TH ST |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Wauwatosa |
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| Year Built: | 1955 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 20192020 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Ranch |
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| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| 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. Zeddie Quitman Hyler was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1918. One of ten children he ran away from home as a teenager so that he could attend high school rather than continue to be a sharecropper. He graduated from Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College and served in the Army during World War II. Hyler married his wife Mary, had a son and moved to Milwaukee in 1950. Part of the large northward migration of African Americans to the industrial north following the war, Hyler got a job with the Postal Service and lived on the northwest side of the city. He did well and wanted to move to the suburbs by the mid-1950s. Knowing that realtors would not sell to a black man in Wauwatosa due to a mixture of redlining, realtor policy, and, by then illegal, restrictive covenants, Hyler asked a friend to purchase a lot first and then buy the property from him. Hyler’s 1955 application for a building permit in Wauwatosa made headline news in Wauwatosa News-Times and the Milwaukee State Journal. It was initially rejected because of a series of neighborhood public meetings. Others, such a church groups, the YMCA, and civil rights leaders expressed outrage at his treatment and the building board overturned the decision. After erecting the first wood frame of the house, located at 2363 N. 113th Street in Wauwatosa, vandals damaged it and later burned it down. The Hyler family also endured harassment and threatening phone calls. The house was completed later that year by Hyler and his brothers. Several properties nearby went up for sale and Hyler repeatedly suffered hostility. However, his family lived in the house peacefully for the following forty-nine years. Hyler recalled: “I think they realized I was coming to stay, and that was pretty much the end of it.” He was active in the TMCA and the Masons and frequently entertained guests during the 1960s including notable figures such as Hank Aaron and Sammy Davis Jr., who were friends. Zeddie Hyler died in 2004. |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |