Join Waukesha resident Brien Lee and his blog, Sir Fido, as they explore the city and report on the interesting things they find.
Opening day was Saturday so I trolled for answers to Waukesha's mysteries. Came close to my limit too. Among the many, better-advertised events in town over the weekend was "Historic Saturday in Waukesha," something Alderwoman Kathlene Cummings and the Landmarks Commission spent months preparing for.
Nine historic buildings were open and three tours were available. I was able to do two and two. I started the day at the 1904 Classical Revival Style Masonic Temple to nibble some fresh blueberry pancakes with a couple Waukesha aldermen. I didn't even know Waukesha had a Masonic Temple, and I've gone past it dozens if not hundreds of times. The temple is a most curious place and I learned a little bit about it. Around the time the temple was built the Masons were very anti slavery. Since the building next door housed the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan, I wonder how that worked out. One of the most interesting things I saw Saturday was an original, April 9th, 1891 page of the Waukesha Freeman in the basement of the temple.
Aug. 13th I blogged about the wonderful time I had discovering the McCall Street area so I jumped at the chance to tour it at 10:00 Saturday. About nine of us wandered around for an hour with our guide who also owns a house in the area. It's nice learning about the age and style of the homes but even more interesting is the story of the original owners. What they did for a living and why they built their particular homes makes for pretty fascinating stories. The owner of the limestone quarry at what is now Van Male Stadium built a stone house with matching stone garage that still stands. The wood flooring craftsman was such a perfectionist building his own house that, by the time he died, everything was finally done... except the floor. The Sears Catalog house that still stands over 90 years later. The German carpenter that brought his wood carving skills to America and to his house. It isn't hard to imagine what it must have been like a hundred years ago because, fortunately, so much is still there.
The McCall tour lasted an hour and the Downtown tour started at 11:00 so that was my next stop. Our excellent tour guide spent all but five years of her life in the city and had stories, pictures or answers for everything. Because I've been around here since the 60s I thought I knew a bit about Waukesha history but, compared to Marilyn, I don't know much at all. Once again, you can pass something a hundred times and see it at street level but if you never take the time to look up you miss half the story. Many of Downtown's historic buildings have business names, dates, symbols or carvings that are only visible on the second or third story, something you will never see speeding from one green light to the next.
The last place I visited I almost had a hard time seeing because we had a patio full of people over for a cookout at the time. I had to sneak out and hope no one saw me. The 1890 Charles Merten home, on top of Rosemary St. hill next to New Tribes, had never been open to the public before and was billed as an incredible opportunity and a must see. It lived up to it's billing. The owners took our small group around inside and out, upstairs and down. The fact that the house has had so few owners in it's 117 years is what presumably has preserved the original woodwork, hardware and fixtures. The house is a beauty that obviously has been painstakenly restored. If the current owners hadn't been working on the home and removing trees and brush for the last ten years this would be an unknown house I wouldn't think twice about as I whizzed past doing 30 in the car. As it is, this was the first time I'd ever been on this particular street. Besides the warm welcome by the owners of the Charles Merten home, seeing their love of history and their sharing it with us, I especially enjoyed seeing and hearing a hundred year old Edison cylinder phonograph playing hundred year old music. The Merten house was worth it and truly made it a day to remember.
