| Additional Information: | This house, as well as the house at 9262 N. 60th Street, were on the 1968 Parade of Homes.
This one-story, Contemporary-style house features a low-pitched, gabled and double roofline with exposed rafters; the roofline rises just above the front. The overhanging eaves feature exposed rafters and shelter the floor-to-ceiling Thermopane window grouping, as well as the additional tripartite slider examples. A double-door entry is located at the home’s approximate center, while the garage wing extends to the north. The house is sheathed with a combination of white brick and vertical board-and-batten siding. A window box extends beneath the slider windows along the south half of the house. A comparison with the original rendering of the home suggests that the extended rooflines terminated beyond the footprint of the house with wooden supports; however, it remains unknown if the house was executed exactly as the rendering depicts. Aside from that feature, the extant home matches the rendering.
This three-bedroom house, known as “The Modernaire,” was built by DM Builders, which was founded in the 1960s by Don Mechelke. This example was one of three model homes completed along the east side of N. 60th Street and within the Fairy Chasm Manor subdivision in the spring of 1968 by DM Builders. Although estimated to cost $19,800 on the permit, this house was advertised for $21,990 (plus lot). Although initially owned and platted by Francis Schroedel, the Fairy Chasm Manor subdivision was purchased by both Embassy Homes and DM Builders. As a result, approximately 80% of the homes in the subdivision were built by the two builders, with approximately 20% of the lots having been sold off so that individuals could choose their own/another builder. In addition to being one of three model homes in the subdivision, it was also House No. 5 (of 41) in the 1968 Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Metropolitan Builders Association of Milwaukee. No original owner information could be ascertained from the permit file. |
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| Bibliographic References: | “See the Big 3. . . in Brown Deer,” Advertisement for DM Builders, The Milwaukee Journal, 17 March 1968; Permit file for 9218 N. 60th Street, original permit (10 August 1967), On file at the Building Inspection Department, Village of Brown Deer, WI. The third model home, the 1968 “Wisconsin House,” a four-bedroom Colonial, remains extant at 9292 N. 60th Street, however, it was not surveyed due to exterior alterations (windows and siding); Map of the 1968 Parade of Homes and short descriptions of each on pages 13-14 of the Parade of Homes insert in The Milwaukee Sentinel, 8 June 1968. A few secondary sources indicate that Milwaukee coined the name “Parade of Homes” with its inaugural “parade” in 1942, but the website of the Metropolitan Builders Association (of Greater Milwaukee) cited 1947 as its first parade. A search for an article on the 1942 parade could not be located; however, the map of the home show model home is depicted with sixteen other homes adjacent to it—sixteen homes are identified as having been in the “1942 parade.” However, an article citing the 1949 Parade of Homes as the city’s third, was found. In either case, this would indicate that Milwaukee’s Parade of Homes did indeed precede the nationwide 1948 start that is cited in other secondary materials. Ad and map for 1942 Milwaukee Home Show Model Home, The Milwaukee Sentinel, 15 March 1942; “History of Design,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, 16 July 1966 reads as follows “In 1942 the Milwaukee Builders Association (now the Metropolitan Builders Association of Greater Milwaukee) staged the first parade of homes in the nation.”; “’Parade’ Idea Started in Milwaukee,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, 19 July 1969; “Public Views ’49 Parade of Homes,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, 11 September 1949; NCHRP Report 723: A Model for Identifying and Evaluating the Historic Significance of Post-World War II Housing (Washington D.C.: Transportation Research Board, 2013), 68, 70; Metropolitan Builders Association website, Available online at www.mbaonline.org, Accessed October 2013.
“Architecture and History Survey: N. 60th ST.” WHS project number 13-1214/MI. September 2013. Prepared by Traci Schnell for Heritage Research Ltd. |
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