Property Record
8041 N GRAY LOG LN
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | BROOKS STEVENS RESIDENCE |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 8671 |
| Location (Address): | 8041 N GRAY LOG LN |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Fox Point |
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| Year Built: | 1939 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1980 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Art/Streamline Moderne |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Concrete |
| Architect: | Fitzhugh Scott Jr. |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| 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. County landmark. Industrial designer Brooks Stevens helped define modern life in the second half of the twentieth century. His most familiar creation was the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, the meatpacker’s mascot, but he also designed an improved Allis Chalmers tractor; the Studebaker, Excalibur, and Jeep automobiles; the Hiawatha train; Evinrude boat engines; an electric steam iron; the 1950 Harley Davidson motorcycle; and the interlocking design on Formica countertops. In 1944, he helped found what became the Industrial Designers Society of America. It is no surprise that when he asked prominent Milwaukee architect Fitzhugh Scott to plan his home around 1942, he chose a modernist design. Its irregular form begins with a one-story rectangle in front and ends with a two-story block at the back, which incorporates a two-car garage. In between, the walls curve to create a sinuous outline. At the joining of the rear block and the curved walls of the main living areas, a glass-block screen and a flat canopy marks the entryway. The building’s overall impression is one of simplicity. Smooth, stark concrete walls feature only spare ornamentation on the coping, a fluted chimney stack, and a scalloped molding above the stained-glass window that extends the full height of the second story. Stevens, it is said, coined the phrase “planned obsolescence,” but this sturdy concrete house with its simple lines remains thoroughly modern. Stevens collaborated on the design with Fitzhugh Scott Jr. Stevens had attended architecture school at Cornell University from 1929 to 1933 and spent his summers working for Eschweiler and Eschweiler. He did not complete his degree and returned to Milwaukee to set up his industrial design practice. ("Wisconsin's Own" by M. Caron Connolly and Louis Wasseerman. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2010. pp. 224-225.) |
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| Bibliographic References: | Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |