Milwaukee City Hall

Milwaukee City Hall
Record height
Tallest in the world from 1895 to 1899[I]
Preceded by	Manhattan Life Insurance Building
Surpassed by	Park Row Building
General information
Location	200 E. Wells St. Milwaukee, USA
Completed	1895
Height
Roof	353 ft (108 m)
Technical details
Floor count	15
References
[1]

The Milwaukee City Hall is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. It was finished in 1895,^[2] at which time it was the tallest habitable building in the United States. The city hall's bell tower, at 353 feet (108 m), also made it the second tallest structure in the nation, behind the Washington Monument. The Hall was Milwaukee's tallest building until completion of the First Wisconsin Center in 1973.

Design

Milwaukee City Hall was designed by architect Henry C. Koch in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style,^[2][3] based on both German precedent (for example, the Hamburg Rathaus or city hall), and local examples (the Pabst Building, demolished in 1981). Due to Milwaukee's historic German immigrant population, many of the surrounding buildings mirror this design. The foundation consists of 2,584 white pine pilers which were driven in to the marshy land surrounding the Milwaukee River.^[4] The upper part of the tower was rebuilt after a fire in October 1929.^[3]

The bell in City Hall was named after Solomon Juneau, Milwaukee's first mayor. It was designed and crafted by the Campbells, who were early pioneers in creating diving chambers and suits near the Great Lakes area during that time.

History

Milwaukee City Hall
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
City Hall in 1901
Location	200 E. Wells St. Milwaukee, USA
NRHP Reference #	73000085[5]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	March 14, 1973
Designated NHL	April 5, 2005[6]

City Hall was the scene of the largest Socialist victory ever registered in an American city, when in 1910 Emil Seidel and a majority Socialist Common Council swept into office. Although the Socialist majority on the Common Council was short-lived, the city was led by Socialist mayors from 1916 to 1960. Mayor Daniel Hoan (1916-1940) and his successor Frank Zeidler (1948-1960) did little to advance the cause of Socialism in general, but their tenures in office were marked by an emphasis on provision of services for the working class.

City Hall was the marketing symbol of Milwaukee until the completion of the Calatrava wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001, but the bell tower continues to be used as a municipal icon and in some traffic and parking signs. Formerly the tower had a Welcome Milwaukee Visitors message on the front three sides; this was one of the iconic images of the opening sequence for locally-set Laverne & Shirley.

From 2006 to 2008, the entire building was renovated, including a complete disassembly and reassembly of the bell tower, by J. P. Cullen & Sons, Inc., a construction manager and general contractor headquartered in Janesville, Wisconsin.^[7] Before the restoration began, the bell was rung rarely because of seismic concerns, and in the last few years an assembly of scaffolds with protective coverings had been in place around the building to protect pedestrians from falling stone and brickwork. The quality of the US$60 million restoration was the subject of a lawsuit filed by the city of Milwaukee in 2012 against various parties involved in the work.^[2]

City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005.^[2]

Panorama of Milwaukee with City Hall at front center, ca. 1898

See also

• List of skyscrapers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Milwaukee City Hall.

• A brief history of City Hall
• City Hall Restoration Project
• Fixing City Hall won't come easy
• National Historic Landmark nomination (PDF)
• Emporis page

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Coordinates: 43°02′30″N 87°54′35″W / 43.0417°N 87.9098°W / 43.0417; -87.9098