TOUR for a cure
Architectural treasure is this year’s Breast Cancer Showhouse
Once again, interior designers and volunteers have worked hard to transform a Milwaukee-area house into the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse. ❚ The results are always striking. And this year will be no exception, as the showhouse, at 1363 N. Prospect Ave., is an impressive Victorian/Gothic style structure made of cream city brick in 1877. ❚ It has a unique exterior, the interior is packed full of amenities, it has a fascinating history; and, of course, all of its rooms will be transformed by area designers. ❚ Ellen Irion, showhouse chair, said the approximately 9,400-square-foot house will be open to the public June 2 to 17 and will be decorated by some of the area’s most talented designers. ❚ And money earned will go to an important cause.
Irion said donations to date amount to $6,475,000 since the first donation in 1998 and that “promising research by past WBCS grant recipients has led to over $68.9 million in additional competitive research grants.”
Kay Brogelman, historian for the showhouse, said the house — which has four levels — will be of interest to tourgoers because it is one of the few surviving buildings designed by architect James Douglas, who is considered one of Milwaukee’s important pioneer architects.
“It was designed as a flamboyant home and was once the towering beacon of Prospect Avenue,” she said. “Although the façade’s original ornate and dominating towers and porches have been removed, and the building narrowly escaped lightning strikes and a freeway demolition order, it stands proudly today as one of Milwaukee’s true architectural treasures.”
Brogelman said Douglas designed more than 100 buildings, and that a good number of them were in Wisconsin.
“He gained a national reputation for his uniquely styled residences,” Brogelman said. “His designs were described by an early historian as ‘Termes Mordax’ or ‘anthill’ style because the houses resembled the cone-shaped structures of African termites.
“The roofline of this year’s Showhouse is representative of that style, with its chiseled hip and pitched octagonal and half-octagonal roof segments, spires and dormers,” she said.
She added that although the building first was used as living quarters, then later commercial space, its original floor plan and amenities have remained intact.
“The interior reflects a sophisticated
Old World look,” she said. “The floor of the vestibule has decorative terra cotta floor tiles, foyer walls are lined with oak wainscoting, and the ceilings are openbeamed with decorative plaster moldings. There are also intricate plaster rosettes on several ceilings, and leaded-paned glass pocket doors and built-ins.”
She added that the house has eight bedrooms, five fireplaces and an elegant open staircase that goes from the first to the third floor, where the home’s roofline creates more than 50 different angles on wall and ceiling surfaces.
Brogelman said the home was built by Gilbert E. Collins of Chicago, who was a wealthy grain broker and real estate investor, as a belated wedding present for his daughter Ella, who married Edward F. Elwell of Beaver Dam in 1874.
It originally had a five-story tower and was the tallest structure on Milwaukee’s east side. The tower was considered to be an architectural masterpiece with its intricate brass ornamentation, iron finials and decorative roof cresting.
“But in 1938, following a third lightning strike, the tower was removed as well as the large ornamented front porch, which featured five Corinthian columns,” she said.
Despite the changes, “the essential Victorian outline and features of the house remain visible today,” she added.
In addition to being able to see all the unique features of the house, tourgoers will be able to see how the designers transformed its interior, said Linda Short, who handles public relations and is the volunteer coordinator.
She estimated that about 30 designers worked in the home. All three floors will be decorated, and an Airbnb located in the lower level will be used as a boutique.
She estimated that about another 1,000 volunteers pitched in to help in other ways this year.
“While every volunteer makes a difference, it’s the designers that create the most impact,” she said. “If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have a house.”
Short said that each designer has a space in which to work, but that they also work together — and with the homeowner — to give the home a cohesive look.
One of the interior designers who worked in the house is Gene Berube, owner of The Virum Collection, a high-end antique business that has a store in Milwaukee as well as an online business. This year he worked with his partner in the online business, Karalyn Ochale, to enhance a third-floor bedroom.
“It’s a very interesting room with all those crazy angles on the ceiling,” he said. “It looks like an artist’s garret, and it has a view of the lake.
“We are going to decorate it as a bedroom. On the third floor, everything was white and the owners were willing to let us do a very antique-looking glaze on the walls, and we’ve also hung this wonderful Danish bronze chandelier. It’s from about 1850 … it looks splendid.”
Berube said the room measures about 15 by 12 feet and “will include an antique iron headboard, some vintage textiles on the end of the bed and a wonderful South German Baroque chest of drawers from about 1750. That will be the featured piece.”
It will also have a “Louis the 16th armchair, and a wonderful vintage yellow Baker desk with chinoiserie decoration. we also have a 19th-century landscape going over the desk, and there is a glorious knotted Oriental rug. It’s new but it looks antique,” he said.
Betsy Peckenpaugh, owner of uncommon walls, a Milwaukee interior design business, said she tackled the second-floor hallway and stairs to the third floor with Margaret Weis, manager of calico, an interior design and furniture store in Brookfield.
“In that area I upholstered the walls with fabric from calico,” Peckenpaugh said. “It’s a modern metallic floral print. We also added a custom violet velvet settee and designed custom slipcovers for end tables on either side of the settee.
“In the stairwell we will also hang figure drawings that I have drawn over the last 40 years,” she added.
Peckenpaugh said she’s participated in the showhouse about 18 times.
“I have family members who have had breast and prostate cancer, so I do it for that reason but also for the great camaraderie with other designers in the city. After many years it feels like a reunion. It’s also a great way to showcase the newest trends in decorating,” she said.
Berube said he’s also been involved with the showhouse for many years, and he participates because he believes it’s a wonderful cause.
“I had an aunt who died of breast cancer years ago, so it’s a cause that’s dear to my heart.”
Amy Brengel, who has owned the house with her husband, Ken, since 2002, participated in the event for similar reasons.
“We wanted to do it because of all the good the showhouse does for years and years. For us it’s sort of a loving gift to Milwaukee.
“Who hasn’t been touched by cancer? My brother died of cancer the very month we were asked to participate. We felt it would be like a gift to him,” she said and added that she also lost her father-in-law to cancer.
Brengel said that since they bought the house they have used it as a commercial property, but that after seeing the way the home looks decorated, they decided to move in.
“When I saw what the designers did, it made me want to move there,” she said. “When my husband came in and saw the front hallway and then the living room — that was it.
“It also occurred to me recently that people don’t want to see a house like this not being lived in. They want to see lights on and they want to imagine what it would look like inside. We would be doing this home a disservice by not having it occupied. It should be a home that is loved and lived in.”
Brengel and her husband are the owners of Spectrum Interiors, an interior and exterior painting and finishing company that works on both residential and commercial projects. They also buy buildings with a focus on period architecture.