Property Record
901-903 S 16TH ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | ANTON SINGER BUILDING |
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| Other Name: | (Hamden Brothers) |
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| Reference Number: | 31815 |
| Location (Address): | 901-903 S 16TH ST |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1906 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1994 |
| Historic Use: | small retail building |
| Architectural Style: | German Renaissance Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | CHARLES L. LESSER |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Mason was Riesen and Wilke Brick store building important to the architectural character of South 16th Street. "This handsome store building, built for Anton Singer, typifies the fine structures which were constructed along S. 16th Street between National and Greenfield Avenues during its heyday as an important commercial district. while most of the area's larger and more flamboyant buildings were razed in the 1980s, examples like this one survive to demonstrate how individual merchants strove to architecturally compete with one another by constructing eye-catching facades to call attention to their businesses. Anton Singer was born in Wisconsin in 1858 to German immigrants Joseph and Theresa Singer, who lived on the city's South Side. Anton originally worked as a carpenter but went into partnership with Adolph Schaefer to open a marble works across from Forest Home Cemetery in 1885. The company mostly made cemetery monuments and headstones. When that partnership dissolved, Singer opened his own monument company. he stayed in the monument business near Forest Home Cemetery until he retired in 1911. South 16th St., which was originally a residential street, began to develop commercially in the 1890s, and by 1910 virtually all of the houses had been converted to stores or were removed to make way for new commercial buildings. Anton Singer took advantage of this trend by replacing his own house with the present solid masonry building in 1906. The Singer family, including sons Edwin, Anthony and Ambrose L., moved into one of the two upstairs flats. Rather than design a plain building, local architect Charles Lesser produced a memorable facade in the German Renaissance Revival style. A Milwaukee native, born in 1864, Lesser was trained in his profession through the time-honored apprenticeship method, first working under architect Howland Russel and then with local architects T. N. Philpot, Gustav Leipold, and Henry J. Van Ryn. In a variation on the traditional German shaped gable, the finely articulated sloping copper cornice breaks out into distinctive angled corners that give the gable a dramatic profile. The unusual 3-part attic window, the numerous stone accents, and the second story recessed porch set within a wide brick arched opening add to the originality of this unorthodox design. The rust-colored brick of the facade was a type highly favored by German-American clients at the turn of the century. Since Singer built the building as a rental property, he never had his own business on the first floor. Although the earliest tenants of the Singer storefront are not known, the first recorded occupant was Frank A. Prasser, a commercial photographer, who had his business here in 1911. Henry Jenk began using the store as a fruit and vegetable market in 1920, and later occupants included a restaurant, a shoe repair shop, and an electrical appliance store. Anton Singer died of cancer at the age of 53 in 1912. He was followed in death by his widow, Katherine, in 1917 at the age of 58. The Singer heirs apparently sold the building in 1919." MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. |
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| Bibliographic References: | MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. Tax Program Building Permit |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |