Property Record
2150 N PROSPECT AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Milwaukee-Western Fuel Company Building |
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| Other Name: | Izumi's |
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| Reference Number: | 29085 |
| Location (Address): | 2150 N PROSPECT AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1934 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2004 |
| Historic Use: | small office building |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | HERBERT W. TULLGREN; Selzer-Ornst |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Milwaukee--Western Fuel Company Building |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/5/1992 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/22/1992 |
| 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. The building is also known as the North Western-Hanna Fuel Company Building. Another map code is 274/13, found on the LUQS #356 map. Excellent example of small Art Moderne office building in original condition. Note terra cotta window spandrels depicting mining operations. Previously surveyed in 1986 with map code 2-7. Map name was LUQS 356. Milwaukee-Western Fuel Company’s choice of a Herbert Tullgren design for their new headquarters created one of Milwaukee's most sophisticated structures. He created an elegant wedding of terracotta detailing and polychromatic masonry Art Deco elements to the streamlined, machine-inspired aesthetic of Moderne style, producing an interwar masterpiece. Its abstract shapes, powerful lines, and exuberant, multicolored masonry are alluring. Repeated black banding introduces a streamlined, horizontal motion across the column bases, subtly echoed by the lines of lighter-colored bricks laid into darker brown-brick walls. Orange-colored engaged columns dominate the main facade, lined up with machine-like regularity. Their strong vertical thrust abruptly terminates in black terracotta stripes and grooved orange caps. Decorative details complement Tullgren's bold shapes, colors, and lines. Bas-relief pictorial panels trace the epic of American coal production. In heroic scenes reminiscent of New Deal-era public art, workers tear the coal from the ground; haul it by truck, train, and barge; and shovel it into the furnace's raging fire. Less conspicuously, a small black diamond company trademark originally flanked the firm's name in metal letters above the colonnade. Tullgren's composition became an impressive advertisement for the company and the industry. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Date of construction: building permit. ZIMMERMAN, 100. BUILT IN MILWAUKEE, LANDSCAPE RESEARCH, P. 92. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |