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Property Record

1037 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr (AKA 1037 N 3RD ST)

Historic Name:
Other Name:
MADER'S GERMAN RESTAURANT
Reference Number:
31833

Property Location

Location (Address) 1037 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr (AKA 1037 N 3RD ST)
County Milwaukee
City/Village Milwaukee
Township
Unincorporated community
Town
Range
Direction
Section
Quarter Section
Quarter Quarter Section

Property Features

Year Built 1935
Additions
Survey Date 1984
Historic Use restaurant/supper club
Architectural Style German Renaissance Revival
Structural System
Wall Material Brick
Architect
Other Buildings On Site
Demolished No
Demolished Date
Additional Comments From the 1850s through the 1920s, the commercial activities of Milwaukee's German community centered here on North Third Street, which linked Milwaukee's main thoroughfare, West Wisconsin (then Grand) Avenue, with the German neighborhood atop Brewers' Hill just to the north. The link grew stronger in the 1880s and 1890s, when North Third also became the route of the major streetcar line leading north from downtown. North Third Street proved a good place to do business, and many German-immigrant entrepreneurs set up shop here. They particularly prospered in the decades after the Civil War--as Milwaukee was evolving from an agricultural processing, trading, and wholesaling center into an industrial city, and immigration continued to swell the city's north-side German neighborhoods.

As business boomed, merchants tore down their wood-frame stores and hired architects to design larger, costlier brick and masonry structures. Old World Third Street Historic District preserves nineteen of these. Despite alteration of many of the 1870s and 1880s storefronts, most upper stories retain their original architectural character. Taken together, they offer a block-long glimpse of Milwaukee's late-nineteenth-century commercial life, when the city's foremost German-ethnic merchants sold and plied their trades here.

Abutting the Pritzlaff Building, the structure housing Mader's German Restaurant is newer than its appearance suggests. It was extensively remodeled into its present form in 1952-1953 and 1962. The building’s German-style features--false half-timbering, a stepped front gable, a cone-top turret--make Mader’s a charming landmark appropriate to a German neighborhood.

Marcus Inc. was the owner at the time of survey.

Established as a saloon by Charles Ruge on Juneau in 1903. Mader later became a partner of Ruge, moving to this location before 1921. This replica of a German restaurant was built later.
Bibliographic References MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: KILBOURNTOWN, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. Tax Program. National Register Nomination Form. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.

National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings

National/State Register Listing Name Old World Third Street Historic District
National Register Listing Date Mar 19, 1987
State Register Listing Date Jan 01, 1989
Contributing Yes
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