Property Record
1037 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr (AKA 1037 N 3RD ST)
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | |
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| Other Name: | MADER'S GERMAN RESTAURANT |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 31833 |
| Location (Address): | 1037 N Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Dr (AKA 1037 N 3RD ST) |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
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| Year Built: | 1935 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1984 |
| Historic Use: | restaurant |
| Architectural Style: | German Renaissance Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Old World Third Street Historic District |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 3/19/1987 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | From the 1850s through the 1920s, the commercial activities of Milwaukee's German community centered here on North Third Street, which linked Milwaukee's main thoroughfare, West Wisconsin (then Grand) Avenue, with the German neighborhood atop Brewers' Hill just to the north. The link grew stronger in the 1880s and 1890s, when North Third also became the route of the major streetcar line leading north from downtown. North Third Street proved a good place to do business, and many German-immigrant entrepreneurs set up shop here. They particularly prospered in the decades after the Civil War--as Milwaukee was evolving from an agricultural processing, trading, and wholesaling center into an industrial city, and immigration continued to swell the city's north-side German neighborhoods. As business boomed, merchants tore down their wood-frame stores and hired architects to design larger, costlier brick and masonry structures. Old World Third Street Historic District preserves nineteen of these. Despite alteration of many of the 1870s and 1880s storefronts, most upper stories retain their original architectural character. Taken together, they offer a block-long glimpse of Milwaukee's late-nineteenth-century commercial life, when the city's foremost German-ethnic merchants sold and plied their trades here. Abutting the Pritzlaff Building, the structure housing Mader's German Restaurant is newer than its appearance suggests. It was extensively remodeled into its present form in 1952-1953 and 1962. The building’s German-style features--false half-timbering, a stepped front gable, a cone-top turret--make Mader’s a charming landmark appropriate to a German neighborhood. Marcus Inc. was the owner at the time of survey. Established as a saloon by Charles Ruge on Juneau in 1903. Mader later became a partner of Ruge, moving to this location before 1921. This replica of a German restaurant was built later. |
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| Bibliographic References: | MILWAUKEE ETHNIC COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS TOUR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, SEPTEMBER 1994. MILWAUKEE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TOUR: KILBOURNTOWN, CITY OF MILWAUKEE DEPARTMENT OF CITY DEVELOPMENT, 1994. Tax Program. National Register Nomination Form. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |