photographic study of milwaukee's city hall, pabst mansion, and the "castle on kilbourn"

a trip to milwaukee last weekend led to a much-needed, albeit abbreviated photographic survey of architectural building ornament (primarily terra cotta) adorning three historically significant 19th century buildings i've repeatedly visited for the last 20 years while traveling on my carefully curated "circuit" of structures within the confines of late 19th and early 20th century milwaukee architecture.

in my humble opinion, the kalvelage mansion - also known as the "castle on kilbourn," is one of the greatest mansions left standing in milwaukee.

the german baroque style structure was designed by architect otto strack for joseph b. kalvelage in 1896 - he lived there until 1920.

the ornamental hand wrought iron was executed by cyril colnik (a section of salvaged ironwork from the non-extant residence of ferdinand kieckhefer is housed in the bldg. 51 museum collection), who was known as the "tiffany of wrought iron masters."
i never grow tired documenting the terra cotta atlantes - executed by the american terra cotta company - surrounding the portico.

photographic study of frederick pabst mansion (1892) ornamental buff-colored terra cotta. architect george bowman ferry designed pabst's largely unaltered mansion in the flemish renaissance style. i believe northwestern terra cotta executed the ornament.

buff colored terra cotta ornament detail adorning the newly restored milwaukee city hall (1895), designed by henry c. koch, in the flemish renaissance revival style. the terra cotta ornament was executed by the northwestern terra cotta company, chicago, ills.