Property Record
3230 S ADAMS AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Humboldt Park Elementary School |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 237848 |
| Location (Address): | 3230 S ADAMS AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1929 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2019 |
| Historic Use: | school – elem/middle/jr high/high |
| Architectural Style: | Late Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | Guy Wiley |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | The Humboldt Park Elementary School was built on the location of an earlier school which had been annexed in 1925. In 1929, Guy E. Wiley, Chief of Construction Division for the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, designed the current school. The Humbolt Park Elementary School displays several elements common to Wiley’s school designs of the period, especially the door treatments with decorative silhouettes and exaggerated architraves, and the vaguely Art Deco-style tower treatments with prominent vertical bays culminating in small round-headed arches. In the mid-1930s, MPS Superintendent Milton Potter initiated a new system of teaching reading. Library Technique was based in progressive educational ideals of the time and allowed students to gain reading skills by pursuing personal interests in a reading area and to develop at their own rate; rather than by learning from a traditional common reader text. Following the superintendent’s annual reports in 1936 and 1937, which emphasized the positive results from partial elements of Library Technique, Humboldt Park School was the first Milwaukee school to adopt the whole Library Technique method in 1938. Library Technique gained modest national attention, partly due to the 1938 National Education Association annual meeting, held in Milwaukee that year. Within a decade, most of the Milwaukee public elementary schools used Library Technique. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Construction Date: MPS. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |