| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
OLDEST REMAINING CHURCH EDIFICE IN CITY. HABS WI-160.
As early as the 1840s, German immigrants stamped their architectural mark on Milwaukee. Old St. Mary’s north and south side walls where a low-pitched hipped roof and round-arched windows typify the Zopfstil, an orderly, symmetrical late Neoclassical mode of church design that rejected the showy Baroque and Rococo. It originated in Germany in the early nineteenth century and came to Milwaukee with the first wave of German immigration in the late 1840s.
Construction of St. Mary’s began soon after Milwaukee secured its city charter, a year before Wisconsin statehood. Victor Schulte designed the building with classrooms on the first story. In 1866, he designed a new west façade, more ornamental than the original but remaining faithful to the round-arch motif. The redesign lowered the auditorium floor, added a large rear wing, and completed the brick bell tower. St. Mary’s interior was redecorated following a serious fire in 1893, but many earlier features survived, including its hand-carved wooden altarpiece dating from 1878. Behind the altar hangs Franz Xavier Glink’s oil painting of the Annunciation, donated by Bavaria's King Ludwig I in the 1840s.
"Milwaukee was a bustling young city near the American frontier when construction began on St. Mary's church. The church is designed in the Zopfstil style which was popular with the early waves of German settlers who began pouring into the city in the 1840s. The style originated in Germany during the early nineteenth century as a streamlined alternative to the highly ornamental Baroque and Rococo church architecture of the eighteenth century. The German word "Zopfstil" refers to an orderly, symmetrical architectural style that incorporates the careful proportions and chaste detailing of the early nineteenth century neo-classical style.
Zopfstil architecture, the German counterpart of the American Federal style of architecture, was popular from about 1800 to 1850 in Germany and influenced the designs of ethnic churches in America as late as 1870. The style is characterized by a low-pitched hip roof, round-arched windows , and a soaring tower centered at the front of the building. The understated elegance of St. Mary's church reflects the symmetry and classical architectural ideals of the early Renaissance and contrasts with the more picturesque and ornamental Gothic Revival style that became fashionable with the city's ethnic Germans in the decades after St. Mary's was completed.
Founded in 1847 to serve the city's German-speaking population, St. Mary's is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in the city. The building was designed by the German-born master carpenter and architect Victor Schulte, who also designed the city's othe Zopfstil church, Holy Trinity, which is located at 605 South Fourth Street. The north and south walls of St. Mary's are all that remains of the 1847 building designed by Schulte. In its original state, the church had grade school classrooms on the first story and a church auditorium on the second floor.
In 1866 the building was extensively remodeled according to Schulte's designs to reflect the round-arched style of architecture then in vogue both in America and in Germany. The main goal of the project was to eliminate the schoolroom level so the building could be used exclusively as a church. The original first floor classrooms were completely eliminated and the floor of the church auditorium was lowered to its present level. One year later, a large addition was made to the rear of the church and the present brick bell tower was completed. A date stone located on the front of the tower just below the belfry commemorates the completion of the renovation in 1867.
The interior was remodeled in 1893 following a serious fire, although many fine earlier features still survive. The splendid carved wooden altar was installed in 1878 and the painting behind the main altar which depicts the Annunciation was executed in Germany by Franz Xavier Glink and donated to the parish by Bavaria's King Ludwig I. The leaded art glass windows, imported from Austria, blaze with rich red and blue hues which, incidentally, were the most costly and difficult colors to produce in stained glass at that time. The half-round ceiling, called a barrel vault, is covered with ornamental pressed tin which is a very unusual feature among Milwaukee's older churches, and was installed during the 1893 renovation. The church is both a local and national landmark." MILWAUKEE ETHNIC CHURCH TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. |
|---|
