828 N Broadway

Summary

The Underwriters Exchange Building is notable for its association with the development of insurance exchange buildings during the early twentieth century. Built in 1924, the Underwriters Exchange Building was part of a national trend that saw insurance exchange buildings constructed in Chicago, Illinois (1912), San Francisco, California (1913), Des Moines, Iowa (1923), and Boston, Massachusetts (1923). An additional example in Sioux City, Iowa was prominently rebranded, “Insurance Exchange Building” in the late 1920s approximately a decade following its construction. The development of insurance exchange buildings involved creating a center for insurance activity by housing a number of insurance firm offices in a single building. The earliest of these examples, the Insurance Exchange Building in Chicago, was characterized as reflective of the movement to effectively segregate business interests – in this case, those of the insurance industry – by bringing together the offices of all the insurance companies of America and Europe then represented in that city into a single building. The Underwriters Exchange Building was similarly purpose-built in response to the insurance industry desire for a building in which insurance firms could be centered. Evidence of this desire was seen in the immediate response by the city’s insurance concerns to establish their offices in this new “community center for insurance men.” Prior to its completion, more than forty Milwaukee insurance firms, most representing national organizations, had leased offices within the building. The Underwriters Exchange Building would continue to serve as a center of insurance activity into the 1950s. By the 1960s, the number of insurance office tenants had decreased and the name of the building was ultimately changed to the “Association of Commerce Building;” identifying it with its largest tenant at that time, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. The building continues to retain many of its original finishes and features including its wood flooring, terrazzo flooring, mail chute, ornamental plaster crown molding within the building lobby and marble stairs adjoining the lobby.

Property Details

Resources Within The Property

Designations