Property Record
790 N VAN BUREN ST (SE CORNER OF WELLS AND VAN BUREN)
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Wisconsin Consistory Building |
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| Other Name: | WISCONSIN SCOTTISH RITE CATHEDRAL |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 42299 |
| Location (Address): | 790 N VAN BUREN ST (SE CORNER OF WELLS AND VAN BUREN) |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1889 |
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| Additions: | 1937 1936 |
| Survey Date: | 19802010 |
| Historic Use: | social recreational/fraternal hall |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Limestone |
| Architect: | EDWARD TOWNSEND MIX; HERBERT W. TULLGREN - remodeling |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Wisconsin Consistory Building |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 9/26/1994 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 6/16/1994 |
| 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, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History. Original cost of construction was approximately $100,000. Original church was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Style by E. Townsend Mix, a Milwaukee architect. Resurveyed as part of Milwaukee Downtown Connector Arch/History Survey (2010), Prepared by Heritage Research. This Art Moderne style Masonic meeting hall originally was a Romanesque Revival style church, home to the Plymouth Congregational Church until 1912. A prominent Masonic fraternal order purchased and somewhat remodeled the church, but the most extensive alterations were done in 1937. The Masons transformed the structure into one of the city’s most impressive Art Moderne exteriors.The building’s streamlined appearance is unique because the massing of the original 1889 Romanesque building was retained in the remodeling. Other impressive exterior features are the hand carved Masonic symbols and statues at the roofline. The parapet wall crowning the corner tower features life-sized carved images of the Knights of St. Andrew. "Architect Mix designed this edifice for Plymouth Congregational Church, embodying in his plans Pastor Judson Titsworth's conviction that it should function not only as a house of worship on Sundays but also as a social center during the week. Plymouth Church served the neighborhood until 1914, when a new church was built on the upper east side--the area in which most of its members resided by that date. Shortly thereafter the church was purchased by the Wisconsin Consistory, a Masonic group, and in 1936 was given its present street facades, adorned with stylized heraldic and religious figures symbolic of the Masonic organizations using it." Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
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| Bibliographic References: | ZIMMERMAN, 60. MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: YANKEE HILL CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. Milwaukee Sentinel 5/13/1888, 11/6. M.E.Y Survey. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. Pagel, Mary Ellen & Virginia A Palmer, University Extension The University of Wisconsin, Guides to Historic Milwaukee: Kilbourntown Walking Tour, 1967. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |