September 2011
Old City Stadium Garage
224 N Baird Street

View looking east, 2010

View looking southeast, 2010

Detail of sandstone façade

Postcard of old East High School, ca. 1900. Sandstone blocks were reused from this building when it was demolished in the 1920s

This little-known building has an impressive history.  It remains the last surviving remnant from Green Bay’s Old City Stadium, home of the Green Bay Packers from 1925-1956. Originally, the red sandstone was incorporated into the façade of the old East High School. After the school was demolished in ca. 1923, the sandstone blocks were salvaged and reused for the garage and entrance to Old City Stadium. Once the new City Stadium, (now Lambeau Field), was constructed, the entrance was demolished. Only this garage remains from not only the stadium, but the 19th century East High School.

The Wisconsin Historical Society describes the structure as such:

Unusually robust building with brownstone facades. Main facades have stepped
brownstone parapets with brownstone coping. Windows are paired metal sash
type with concrete sills. Unusually impressive material for such a utilitarian use
and the only such example in Green Bay.

This building is listed as Record #29678 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

August 2011
Blesch's Bay Brewery
(1856-1998)
145 N Pearl Street

This building lives only in photographs and stories from the past. It was the last commercial building dating to the 1850s, and only brewery remaining in West Green Bay prior to its 1998 demolition.
In later years, few would recognize the building’s significance—architecturally or historically. Tucked away along the railroad tracks on Pearl Street, the former Blesch Brewery was clad in stamped metal siding and devoid of any ornamentation. One hundred and forty-two years earlier, it was quite another story.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS), the building was constructed in 1856 by Francis Blesch as the site of his Bay Brewery. Blesch Brewery would be the first and only brewery to operate in Fort Howard.

Francis Blesch was born in Bergen, Germany, in 1824, and emigrated to the United States in 1849, settling in Green Bay in 1850. He started Bay Brewery shortly thereafter. The Bay Brewery prospered until it closed around upon Blesch's 1879 death.

Architecturally, the building originally was three stories in height, with the third floor later removed. It was constructed of quarried limestone with supporting hand hewed timbers and a limestone foundation. The windows all had square arch, heavy limestone lintels and thinner limestone sills. An early, seven panel entrance door survived until the building’s demolition on the main or east façade, according to the WHS.
Several photographs of the building in its original use still survive, including a view of the structure in the oldest image of Fort Howard—a tintype taken in 1855.

This building is listed as Record #2175 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

July 2011
John Brogan House
303 N Ashland Avenue

Now celebrating its 100 years since its construction, the John Brogan house prominently sits at the corner of N. Ashland and Dousman Streets on the city’s west side. The massive home includes interesting architectural elements such as wide concrete watercourse, brick siding, cement belt-course, and a wide stucco frieze. The four dormers are sided in stucco and false half-timbers. A three-story circular tower projects out from the southeast corner. The Wisconsin Historical Society describes the home as the “grandest Queen Anne style house on the west side of Green Bay and one of the largest and most impressive in the entire city.”

This building is listed as Record #2045 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

June 2011
Theodore Kenmitz House
106-108 N Ashland Avenue

The Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) has in their possession a detailed file of this home, which was constructed around 1880. As noted by the WHS, this Italianate style home’s exterior is mostly original, aside from the original full-width front porch that was removed in 1957. The home’s windows feature segmented arch windows with corbelled brick hoods with keystones. All windows have corbelled brick brackets below the brick window sills. The WHS notes that this home is the best of “the earliest formal houses that survive in West Green Bay” which are Italianate in design.

The hip roof has wide, overhanging eaves with a bracketed cornice below. The deck at the apex of the roof probably once had a cupola above since removed.

This building is listed as Record #5606 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

May 2011
815 Cherry Street

Contemporary view of the home

Porch detail

1987 View. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society

A rare grouping of Civil War-era buildings can be found on Cherry Street in downtown Green Bay. Included is 815 Cherry Street, a mostly original front gabled home with Queen Anne decorative additions dating to 1863. Notable architectural features include fish-scale and diamond pattern wood shingles, original turned colonettes and spindle-work, and double entrance doors. Currently the home is a rental property.

This building is listed as Record #5605 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

April 2011
Charles M. Hasseler House
1125 S Van Buren

German Baroque style architecture is extremely rare in Green Bay. Only two other structures of this style were documented by the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS), both of which have since been demolished. As noted by WHS, the home unique features include curved parapet gables of stucco, as well as diamond-paned leaded windows. The home’s original owner was Charles M. Hasseler. Blankenship Construction built the home, as noted in a September 4, 1916 article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, which featured this home.

This building is listed as Record #51905 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

March 2011
Austin Larsen House
616-618 Dousman Street

The Wisconsin Historical Society describes the Austin Larsen House as:

A unique design in the City of Green Bay, and as such, is considered significant as an example of a style of construction. The house has some stripped down, simplified elements of the Craftsman and Mission styles, but does not really adhere to any of the popular styles in 1909, the year it was constructed.

The earliest known photo of the home, taken by Green Bay photographer J. Aregi in the ca. 1930s, reveals what the original façade may have looked like. Decorative elements, including balustrades above the sun porch and porte-cochere, are shown. At the time, the entryway was mostly glass, featuring double doors. The large flat roofed porte-cochere was added in 1918, designed by Foeller & Schober. In the late 1930s the home was converted into a multi-family property. In addition to segmenting the interior of the home, the entryway was altered when the original glass-paned front doors were moved and replaced with plain paneled doors, and the side windows were in-filled with stucco.

February 2011
Brown County Motors Company
610-614 Bodart Street

Green Bay is fortunate to have several extant automobile showrooms, all of which exhibit unique designs. The Brown County Motors Company building on Bodart Street features twin arched entryways and a pilastered façade with an abstract trellis design. Although most of the original windows have been filled in, it the basic structure remains intact.

The building once housed the Hudson and Essex Motors showroom and service room, opening on January 20, 1923. The original address was 610 Main Street, later changed to Bodart Street. The Essex Motor Company was actually an entity owned by Hudson Motor Company from 1918-1922. In 1922 the company was dissolved, and Essex automobiles continued to be sold by Hudson until the brand name disappeared altogether in 1933. 

Despite the later alterations, the singular qualities of the original building can still be seen and appreciated.

This building is listed as Record #29750 with the Wisconsin Historical Society.

January 2011
Daniel P. Bradley Saloon/Molly McGee’s
401 S. Washington Street

The Daniel P. Bradley Saloon is likely the oldest saloon extant in Green Bay which maintains its original function. It was constructed in ca. 1888. With the exception of Prohibition, it has house a saloon continually for the last 122 years. The original owner was Daniel Bradley, who also built a hotel named Bradley House on the adjacent lot to the south in 1884. The Daniel P. Bradley Saloon is clearly visible in a “birds-eye view” of Green Bay taken in early 1889 by Frederick L.G. Staubel. Remarkably, the overall structure of the exterior has remained much the time, with the exception of façades consisting of contemporary wood siding and stucco.

This building is listed as Record #170761 with the Wisconsin Historical Society