Property Record
1530-1534 W LINCOLN AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | MICHAL WARGIN BUILDING |
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| Reference Number: | 31831 |
| Location (Address): | 1530-1534 W LINCOLN AVE |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
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| Year Built: | 1914 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1980 |
| Historic Use: | large retail building |
| Architectural Style: | German Renaissance Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | STANLEY KADOW |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Brick store building significant to the archtitectural character of W. Lincoln Avenue, a commercial corriodor. Some of Milwaukee's best examples of Polish-influenced commercial architecture line this stretch of West Lincoln Avenue. This commercial district developed during the early twentieth century to serve the South Side's burgeoning Polish-American community. Many structures here feature lively, curvilinear gables, distinct from their angular Victorian neighbors. The distinctive curves recall the scrolled gables of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Polish townhouses. The district culminates in the Wargin Building, designed by Stanley Kadow and constructed in 1914 for dry-goods merchant Michael Wargin. With two storefronts and four upstairs apartments, this is one of the largest family-owned commercial buildings on West Lincoln Avenue. Dramatic shaped gables with sheet-metal cornices dominate the elevations, giving a strong visual rhythm to the roofline. "It would be impossible to travel down Lincoln Avenue without noticing the outstanding commercial building as No. 1530-1534. With its two storefronts and four upstairs apartments, it is one of the largest of the family-owned commercial buildings on Lincoln Avenue. The two street fronts are dominated by dramatic shaped gables with sheet metal cornices that accent the complex curves. The building is unusual and eye-catching because its curvaceous roofline is so visually prominent that the building has always been a local landmark. The gable end at the front of the building frames a bank of seven attic windows that are accented with stone sills and lintels, and below them are projecting oriel windows on the second story. Unlike most buildings of its age, storefronts on the first floor retain much of their original appearance. The striking building was commissioned by Michal Wargin and designed by South Side architect Stanley Kadow. Kadow was born in Germany in 1868 and, when less than a year old, came to the United States with his parents, who settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. As a young man, Kadow moved to Milwaukee, and, after a brief stint as a bookkeeper, became an apprentice with Ferry & Clas, one of the city's most prestigious architectural firms in Milwaukee, Kadow practiced primarily in a particular neighborhood, in this instance the South Side, and produced designs for houses, commercial buildings, and movie theaters. Over 80 of his commissions were executed in the Bay View neighborhood where he lived, but Kadow is known to have designed at least six buildings in the Lincoln Ave. area. Generalizations about his work are hard to make since most of his known projects have been substantially remodeled, but Kadow designed solid, well-built buildings until his death at the age of 67 in 1933. Kadow utilized the German Renaissance Revival style for the Wargin Building, which may be Kadow's most flamboyant design. The building's owner, Michal Wargin, was born in Poland in 1869 and came to Milwaukee around 1891. He first lived on Mitchell St. where he plied his trade as a tailor before relocation to Lincoln Ave. in 1903 where he built a 1-story cottage with a storefront. After moving to this story cottage with a storefront. After moving to this location, Wargin operated a dry goods shop, while his wife, Michalina, operated a millinery business. In 1914, as many Lincoln Ave. merchants were beginning to remodel or build new stores, Wargin had the present brick-veneered structure built on his lot to house two stores and four flats. Through 1921 the Wargins lived in one of the flats and used both storefronts, one for the dry goods store to manage his wife's millinery shop, and the west storefront was turned over to Wargin's son-in-law, Frank E. Kozlowski, a pharmacist. Kozlowski moved out when he divorced Anna Wargin, and the storefront subsequently was tenanted by a fruit market (1925), a real estate office (1926-1933), and a hosiery store (1934-1944). Wargin continued to operate the millinery shop in the east storefront after Michalina died at the age of 72 in 1942. Daughter Anna Kozlowski, who had continued to live with her parents after her divorce, sold the building in 1945. Since that time the building has had a variety of commercial tenants including a music school, a beauty shop, a florist, a television sales and repair business, a floor covering store, and a grocery." MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. |
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| Bibliographic References: | MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. Tax program. Permit. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |