| Additional Information: | Julius Heil was born in Duesmond-on-the-Mosel, Germany, in 1876. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1881, settling in New Berlin, Wisconsin. He began working for the Falk Corporation in Milwaukee as a welder while a teenager and eventually become a superintendent of rail crews operating in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. In 1901, Heil established his own rail joint welding business in Milwaukee, and in 1906, the company was named the Heil Company. The company became very successful specializing in the manufacturer of truck body chassis and heating and cooling equipment, growth industries in the 1910s. The company continued to grow to one of the largest manufacturers in the state, producing trucks and heating units, with fifty sales offices around the world. During this time, Julius and his wife Elizabeth lived at 2429 East Beverly Road in Shorewood. Julius Heil was named to the advisory board of the National Recovery Administration by the Roosevelt Administration. In 1939, he ran for governor of the State of Wisconsin, defeating the progressive incumbent Philip LaFollette. As governor, Heil actively promoted the state’s dairy industry and reorganized the state’s departments of welfare and taxation. By the time of his election, the Heils moved to a large house at 5240 North Lake Drive in Whitefish Bay; where he continued to live during his term as governor rather than moving to Madison. He had his likeness on the cover of the June 1939 issue of Time magazine and served only one term in office.
During the last fifteen months of Heil’s life, he had a large showcase home designed and built along the Menomonee River Parkway in Wauwatosa. Completed in 1949, the Tudor Styled Ranch house cost over $200,000 to constructed after a lengthy design process and featured massive entertaining rooms, radiant heating, and two wings. However, Julius Heil only lived in the house for three months before he died of a heart attack that same year. The Heil Company’s truck body division was sold to Diver Industries and the Heating and Cooling division was sold to International Comfort Products in 1993. |
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