Additional Information: | 2016 - Brick facade has a recessed entrance and concrete accents. The east elevation has been covered with stucco, and the property has replacement windows throughout.
2021 - The group of four buildings at this location are currently identified by a single legal address of 816 W. National Ave. At an unknown date, probably in the mid-1960s, the easternmost three buildings (816, 822, and 826) were combined into a single industrial property. In 2014, the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) combined and renovated all four buildings to serve as their Walker’s Square Education Center, specializing in trade skill education.
816 W. National Ave. (AHI #103620) is a two story building, built in 1925, and clad in tan brick laid in stack bond with cast stone accents. The two deeply-recessed entries contains flat panel steel doors. The east (side) elevation is covered in stucco, and the building has replacement windows.
822 W. National Ave. (AHI #103626) is a three story building constructed around 1965, most likely as an addition to 826 (AHI #103627). 822 is Modernist in style, with a buff brick façade. Each story contain two groups of windows arranged in bands, with a decorative panel of limestone cladding between the window groups. These windows originally contained horizontally-oriented multi lights but have been replaced with two light fixed windows.
826 W. National Ave. (AHI #103627) is a two story buff brick building constructed sometime prior to 1951. The building is Modernist in style, with a recessed entry and windows arranged in precise geometric groups. The window groups are separated by limestone panels. Originally the windows contained horizontally-oriented multi lights but have been replaced with two light fixed windows. As noted previously, 822 W. National Ave. (the adjoining building) was most likely built as an addition to this building. In a subtle architectural detail, the façade of 826 (the addition) is set back exactly 4 inches (the depth of one brick) from the earlier façade of 822, although the brick coursing of the two adjoining buildings does not perfectly align.
838 W. National (AHI #103625) is a cream brick Italianate-style building that was constructed around 1892 for Levy Bros. & Co. Dry Goods. The primary façade faces south on National Avenue, and is symmetrical in composition, with a central recessed entryway on the first floor flanked by large replacement display windows. The second and third stories each contain seven replacement windows spaced evenly across the primary façade, all in their original arched openings. On the second story, these windows are arched with inlaid brick surrounds and a center window flanked by brick pilasters. The third story windows are rectangular, and the center window is the only one on this level that is arched with a brick surround. The cornice above is wide and elaborate, with a plain brick parapet fronting the flat roof above.
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