| Additional Information: | In 1946, Maxwell Kohl constructed his first supermarket at 4623 West Burleigh Street in the City of Milwaukee. However, in 1950 the first prototypical arched design of a Kohl’s supermarket was constructed along North Avenue in Wauwatosa. Similar to the prototypical Kohl’s Grocery, the first of the arched type along North Avenue does lack the later floor-to-ceiling glass, textured brick, and Kohl’s channel lettering. However, it does retain the original pylon, but not the original Kohl’s channel lettering. Not all Kohl’s constructed in the 1950s and 1960s were identical, though they did share the arched roofed element. The Kohl’s on North Avenue was remodeled in 1960.
Kohl’s became a pioneer of the modern supermarket trend in the 1950s with its large buildings, modern architecture, automatic doors, on-site parking, interior mezzanines, and the inclusion of a deli and bakery within the store. By 1972, there were fifty Kohl’s supermarkets in southeastern Wisconsin, and it was the largest grocery chain in Milwaukee County. Kohl’s stores were eventually sold to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) in 1983, though it retained the Kohl’s name and branding. In 2003, the grocery stores were sold again, and the company dissolved. The building is presently occupied by Sendik’s Food Market and remodeled. It is notable that it is still used as a grocery store.
2024: Kohl’s Food Store is a one-and-one-half story, rectangular-plan, Contemporary-style commercial building constructed in 1951. It is clad in brick and has a concrete foundation. The primary massing includes a barrel-arched roof, and a flat-roof addition is on the side and rear (west and north) elevations. Fixed-pane, metal-frame windows span the front (south) facade and a sign advertising the current occupant—Sendik’s—is attached to the side (west) elevation. A horizontal ribbon of fixed-pane, metal-frame windows extends across this elevation.
This commercial building was constructed as the third location of Kohl’s Food Store, a Milwaukee-based grocery store chain. It is an early example of an arched glulam roof supermarket, an innovative design for postwar grocery stores. Designed by Milwaukee architect Frederic “Fritz” Von Grossmann, the building also displays many character-defining features of the Contemporary style, included projecting flat canopy. |
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