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Our Watch List, June 2010
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We have been hearing from people across the state about threatened buildings in their communities. Now, there is something that you can do to help raise awareness. Engage the Wisconsin Trust for as your preservation partner and possible advocate! We are in the process of building an on-line communication network that will enable communities and individuals from across the state to share information about threatened buildings and effective ways to protect them.
We also would like to learn about your success stories and welcome information about well-maintained historic structures that are well-utilized and appear to have an excellent prospect of a long-term presence in your communities.
Add your photographs to Flickr
Take digital images and establish a page on Flickr which is a free service as long as you limit your posts. We invite you, then, to post your pictures to our group “Historic Wisconsin Buildings.” This format provides an opportunity to identify the structure and briefly tell its story. This photo group is not just for threatened buildings but for those structures that continue in use.
Contact us with your Concerns
The Wisconsin Trust would like you to participate in identifying threatened sites and structures from around the state. We are hoping to establish a group of volunteer “watch-dogs,” who will contact us with information about architecturally or historically significant places that are threatened with demolition, extensive alteration or are simply suffering from neglect. Until we have assembled such a group we need to rely on all of you, from every corner of our state, to be in touch about ways we might be an advocate for the places of enduring value in your region. Please feel free to contact us on our Facebook page, as well.
Threatened Wisconsin Buildings
Our Flickr site features a set that includes photographs of Wisconsin structures that we know to be threatened. If you contact us via our
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and submit your photographs directly to us, we will showcase your images on our Watch List. |
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The historic Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa was placed on our Watch List last August. The site is home to a building complex designed by Alexander C. Eschweiler that initially functioned as the Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. The WTHP has become involved with the work of a local environmental coalition whose principal concern with the site is that it be preserved as unique migratory pathway for monarch butterflies. As plans for the development of the site progress, preserving both historic authenticity and a fragile ecosystem should represent important goals. (Photo courtesy Eddee Daniel)
The Bartles-McGuire/Wadhams Gas Station in Waukesha has been threatened with demolition since late last summer. The building has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and is listed as a local landmark. Its current owner, the YMCA is planning to tear it down and use the site as either parking or green space unless the building is sold. The property was listed about a month ago. To view the listing please click here.
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The Israel Stowell Temperance House in Delavan, which was threatened with being razed as a fire hazard, now is in the possession of the Delavan Historical Society. The society has completed a condition assessment and actively is raising money to preserve this prominently situated building for future generations. The Temperance House was constructed in 1840 and was the site of many anti-slavery and temperance meetings. A Book Sale was hosted by the Delavan Historical Society last September. It was a great success; the building was emptied of the thousands of books it had stored for the past many decades and the historical society raised dollars to further their mission of making needed repairs to the building. For pictures of the event, please visit our our Flickr photostream!
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The Green Bay Catholic Diocese has transferred ownership of its decommissioned St. Mary of the Snows in Namur to the Peninsula Belgian American Club. The community will now protect and preserve the church, which is a contributing element to the National Historic Landmark district that safeguards and celebrates the contribution of Belgian-American culture in northeastern Wisconsin. The group now is looking for ways to raise money to rehabilitate the church. |
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Editors