Frank Lloyd Wright Burnham Block, Soldier’s Home and Forest Home Cemetery
Tour 12
Frank Lloyd Wright Burnham Block
Burnham Block explores Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision for an American home in this rare collection of Wright designed American System-Built Homes. We will be touring the Wright designed American-System Built Homes, Model B1 and a Two-Family, Flat "C".
Soldier’s Home
The Milwaukee Soldiers Home was built in 1867 as a place of healing for veterans returning from the Civil War. As one of his last acts, President Lincoln signed legislation to create a national system of homes for disabled veterans. Since then, thousands of Wisconsin veterans have called the Milwaukee Soldiers Home their safe haven. One of only 43 National Historic Landmarks in Wisconsin, the Soldiers Home contains some of the oldest and most historic buildings in the VA system.
Forest Home Cemetery
Forest Home is a "Priceless Treasure" located on the south side of Milwaukee. With its sun-graced grass, fountains, lake, thousands of trees and roads that wind through multiple floral gardens and the final resting places of over 118,000 individuals, it is a lasting example of carefully maintained respect and care. Since 1850, Milwaukee has grown in an uncertain world of wars, victories, tragedies and triumphs, and throughout decades of changing times, area citizens and dignitaries have always shared a comforting constant: the unparalleled dignity of eternal rest at Forest Home Cemetery.
Along with Forest Home Cemetery itself, this splendid Gothic structure was officially proclaimed an Historical Milwaukee Landmark in 1973. Construction of the Landmark Chapel began in 1890 and, owing to the time required for fine craftsmanship and attention to detail, took two-full years to complete. Today it remains a favorite haven for quiet and peaceful meditation.
(Sources: Information and pictures from their websites)
Hawks Inn and Old World Wisconsin – Tours 2 and 10
Hawks Inn
This Greek Revival Inn, built by Nelson P. Hawks, has been described as an “unsurpassed example of an early stagecoach stop.” It was the center of social and political life in the frontier village of Delafield, Wisconsin.
Built two years before Wisconsin became a state, Hawks Inn welcomed farmers in search of a homestead, trappers, traders, territorial politicians, and miners in search of a strike in the lead mines of western Wisconsin.
Renovated and refurbished as a historic site, Hawks Inn is a Wisconsin Landmark on the National Register of Historic Sites and open for public tours. Modern visitors will find it easy to imagine themselves as pioneer travelers when they step across the threshold of Delafield’s historic Hawks Inn.
The current art exhibit to view during the tour will be the Charles Dix Art Exhibition.
(Sources of history and pictures: hawksinn.org)
Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin includes 60 beautifully restored historic structures on over 600 acres of picturesque landscape. Through stories of perseverance, you explore the lives of those who came before us – connecting people and inspiring understanding. Your day will be fun, engaging, enriching, and authentic as you encounter history by exploring sensory-rich spaces, stories, and hands-on activities.
Each area at Old World Wisconsin showcases different stories. As you travel through time from the 1840s to the 1910s, you will find historic spaces to explore, gardens and trails to wander through, and costumed staff ready to help you get hands-on with history. You will also meet a variety of animals that helped our ancestors survive and thrive in this new world. Experience the daily life of the people who called these buildings home as you help with chores and cooking, try your hand at crafts and trades, and play – yes, even the grownups!
We will be touring a few of the sites within Old World Wisconsin.
(Source: Oldworldwisconsin.org)
Lunch will be at Revere's Wells Street Tavern in downtown Delafield (excellent food)
Edelweiss Cruise – Tour 4
Travel through downtown Milwaukee underneath its bridges, see historical landmarks and get a front-row view of the Milwaukee skyline including the Milwaukee Art Museum (Calatrava), Discovery World, Summerfest grounds, and yacht clubs. This narrated tour is brought to you by the Milwaukee County Historical Society.
While we are touring the beautiful sites of Milwaukee on the cruise, we will be enjoying a nice lunch on the boat.
(Source & pictures from the Edelweiss Milwaukee River Cruise Line)
Travel through downtown Milwaukee underneath its bridges, see historical landmarks and get a front-row view of the Milwaukee skyline including the Milwaukee Art Museum (Calatrava), Discovery World, Summerfest grounds, and yacht clubs. This narrated tour is brought to you by the Milwaukee County Historical Society.
While we are touring the beautiful sites of Milwaukee on the cruise, we will be enjoying a nice lunch on the boat.
(Source & pictures from the Edelweiss Milwaukee River Cruise Line)
Kemper Center & Durkee Mansion – Part of Tour 14
Part of the tour includes, Kemper Center, Kemper Chapel, Study Hall, Chemistry Lab, Durkee Mansion and more.
Kemper Center had its beginnings in 1861, as the private home of Wisconsin’s first United States Senator, Charles Durkee. In 1865, Senator Durkee’s home became an Episcopal boarding school for young women.
The girls’ school became Kemper Hall in 1871, in memory of Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop for the Northwest Territory of the American Episcopal Church. When the Episcopal Sisters of St. Mary assumed the leadership of the school in 1878, Kemper Hall also became the Mother House for the Western Province, which then extended to the Pacific Ocean.
Charles Durkee, a native of Royalton, Vermont, and his bride Catherine, came to Pike Creek (Kenosha’s original name) in 1836. He built a log cabin of oak and black walnut in the area that would later be called Southport, and later still, Kenosha. The Durkees loved the area and bought land extending from the center of town to the lakefront. Their happiness, however, was to be short lived. His 25-year old wife fell ill and died in her new home.
He served in Congress from 1848-1853 and in the U.S. Senate from 1854-1861 where he championed worker’s rights and fought for progressive homestead laws. After his return to Kenosha in 1861, Senator Durkee began construction on a new cream-brick, 10-room Italiante Victorian mansion on 10 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan, with his second wife, Caroline. The home consisted of a ballroom, a widow’s walk facing Lake Michigan, and an ornate wooden porch, which wrapped completely around the home.
Many other changes were made to the mansion; however the free-standing suspension staircase in the foyer remains today, as it was when the house was first built.
In the 1860s, the pantry had a trap door to the root cellar where it is rumored that it was used to provide safe haven to runaway slaves during the Civil War.
Throughout the house are stained glass windows given by graduating classes. The exterior of the building contains the class stones dating back to the first Kemper Hall graduating class of 1874 and continuing to the last graduating class of 1975.
(Source: Kempercenter.com)
Part of the tour includes, Kemper Center, Kemper Chapel, Study Hall, Chemistry Lab, Durkee Mansion and more.
Kemper Center had its beginnings in 1861, as the private home of Wisconsin’s first United States Senator, Charles Durkee. In 1865, Senator Durkee’s home became an Episcopal boarding school for young women.
The girls’ school became Kemper Hall in 1871, in memory of Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop for the Northwest Territory of the American Episcopal Church. When the Episcopal Sisters of St. Mary assumed the leadership of the school in 1878, Kemper Hall also became the Mother House for the Western Province, which then extended to the Pacific Ocean.
Charles Durkee, a native of Royalton, Vermont, and his bride Catherine, came to Pike Creek (Kenosha’s original name) in 1836. He built a log cabin of oak and black walnut in the area that would later be called Southport, and later still, Kenosha. The Durkees loved the area and bought land extending from the center of town to the lakefront. Their happiness, however, was to be short lived. His 25-year old wife fell ill and died in her new home.
He served in Congress from 1848-1853 and in the U.S. Senate from 1854-1861 where he championed worker’s rights and fought for progressive homestead laws. After his return to Kenosha in 1861, Senator Durkee began construction on a new cream-brick, 10-room Italiante Victorian mansion on 10 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan, with his second wife, Caroline. The home consisted of a ballroom, a widow’s walk facing Lake Michigan, and an ornate wooden porch, which wrapped completely around the home.
Many other changes were made to the mansion; however the free-standing suspension staircase in the foyer remains today, as it was when the house was first built.
In the 1860s, the pantry had a trap door to the root cellar where it is rumored that it was used to provide safe haven to runaway slaves during the Civil War.
Throughout the house are stained glass windows given by graduating classes. The exterior of the building contains the class stones dating back to the first Kemper Hall graduating class of 1874 and continuing to the last graduating class of 1975.
(Source: Kempercenter.com)
Ten Chimneys – Tours 3 and 16
Ten Chimneys is the estate lovingly created by Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Those who visit, like guests of the Lunts, are welcomed into the Lunts' extraordinary home without the fuss of ropes or barriers. Tours of Ten Chimneys not only celebrate the one-of-a-kind collection the Lunts amassed during their lifetimes, but also honor the values found in every corner of the Lunts' lives, both on the stage and in the house they called home for more than half a century.
Yes, there are ten chimneys! Lynn and Alfred named their Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, estate after the number of chimneys on the Main House, Cottage, and Studio combined. The elegant three-story Main House has six chimneys and eighteen rooms (including the: Entry Hall, Garden Room, Flirtation Room, Drawing Room, Library, Belasco Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Helen Hayes Bedroom, Laurence Olivier Bedroom, Noël Coward Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Lynn’s Dressing Room, and Lynn’s Sewing Room). The Lunts’ quaint country Cottage has three chimneys and five main rooms (Living Room, Kitchen, Syrie Maugham Bedroom, Library, and Bugbee Bedroom). The one-room Swedish-style log cabin Studio has one chimney. The 60-acre estate, nestled in the rolling Kettle Moraine of southeast Wisconsin, also includes a charming pool and pool house, a creamery, a greenhouse, barns, stables, and other bucolic outbuildings.
Ten Chimneys is as personal as a diary. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne designed and decorated Ten Chimneys the same way they crafted each performance – one delightful detail building upon another. Each room was carefully dressed as if it were a stage set. Their choices were more about theatricality and whimsy than opulence. After all, why use real marble when you can tease your audience with surprising trompe l’oeil? Yet, despite meticulous planning, Ten Chimneys exudes an easy comfort.
(Source of information and pictures: tenchimneys.org)
Ten Chimneys is the estate lovingly created by Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Those who visit, like guests of the Lunts, are welcomed into the Lunts' extraordinary home without the fuss of ropes or barriers. Tours of Ten Chimneys not only celebrate the one-of-a-kind collection the Lunts amassed during their lifetimes, but also honor the values found in every corner of the Lunts' lives, both on the stage and in the house they called home for more than half a century.
Yes, there are ten chimneys! Lynn and Alfred named their Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, estate after the number of chimneys on the Main House, Cottage, and Studio combined. The elegant three-story Main House has six chimneys and eighteen rooms (including the: Entry Hall, Garden Room, Flirtation Room, Drawing Room, Library, Belasco Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Helen Hayes Bedroom, Laurence Olivier Bedroom, Noël Coward Bedroom, Master Bedroom, Lynn’s Dressing Room, and Lynn’s Sewing Room). The Lunts’ quaint country Cottage has three chimneys and five main rooms (Living Room, Kitchen, Syrie Maugham Bedroom, Library, and Bugbee Bedroom). The one-room Swedish-style log cabin Studio has one chimney. The 60-acre estate, nestled in the rolling Kettle Moraine of southeast Wisconsin, also includes a charming pool and pool house, a creamery, a greenhouse, barns, stables, and other bucolic outbuildings.
Ten Chimneys is as personal as a diary. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne designed and decorated Ten Chimneys the same way they crafted each performance – one delightful detail building upon another. Each room was carefully dressed as if it were a stage set. Their choices were more about theatricality and whimsy than opulence. After all, why use real marble when you can tease your audience with surprising trompe l’oeil? Yet, despite meticulous planning, Ten Chimneys exudes an easy comfort.
(Source of information and pictures: tenchimneys.org)
Black Point Estate and Gardens – is part of tours 6 and 11
As it has been for over 130 years, Black Point Estate & Gardens is a retreat, a place to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life, relax, and explore. Located on the beautiful Geneva Lake, the expansive and elegant Victorian estate of Chicago Beer Baron Conrad Seipp, spanning across eight acres of land and 620 feet of undisturbed shoreline. The home served as a respite for generations of the Seipp family before it opened to the public in 2007.
In 1888, the Seipp family completed the 20-room Queen Anne-style mansion on the site, which included 13 bedrooms. Unfortunately, Seipp was able to enjoy the house and gardens for only two seasons before his death in 1890. His family and four generations of descendants, however, never abandoned Conrad’s dream. The original furnishings remained in the house while each generation added its own touches. Today, the home is a rare time capsule for historians. Everyday household items range from Victorian to modern but share the same family provenance.
1888 Victorian Mansion
A guided tour takes guests through the first two floors of this beautiful Queen Anne-style summer cottage, considered one of the finest examples of period architecture and furniture in the Midwest, and one of the oldest mansions in Lake Geneva. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Estate and Gardens
Outside the mansion, the estate truly comes alive in the enchanting gardens and wrap-around verandas surrounding the home. The massive lawn, a popular spot for special events, evokes memories of outdoor games played on leisurely summer days. Located on top of a bluff overlooking Geneva Lake, this site offers a stunning, picturesque view of the lake and surrounding countryside.
(sources for information & pictures: Wisconsin Historical Society & Wis.Gov)
As it has been for over 130 years, Black Point Estate & Gardens is a retreat, a place to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life, relax, and explore. Located on the beautiful Geneva Lake, the expansive and elegant Victorian estate of Chicago Beer Baron Conrad Seipp, spanning across eight acres of land and 620 feet of undisturbed shoreline. The home served as a respite for generations of the Seipp family before it opened to the public in 2007.
In 1888, the Seipp family completed the 20-room Queen Anne-style mansion on the site, which included 13 bedrooms. Unfortunately, Seipp was able to enjoy the house and gardens for only two seasons before his death in 1890. His family and four generations of descendants, however, never abandoned Conrad’s dream. The original furnishings remained in the house while each generation added its own touches. Today, the home is a rare time capsule for historians. Everyday household items range from Victorian to modern but share the same family provenance.
1888 Victorian Mansion
A guided tour takes guests through the first two floors of this beautiful Queen Anne-style summer cottage, considered one of the finest examples of period architecture and furniture in the Midwest, and one of the oldest mansions in Lake Geneva. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Estate and Gardens
Outside the mansion, the estate truly comes alive in the enchanting gardens and wrap-around verandas surrounding the home. The massive lawn, a popular spot for special events, evokes memories of outdoor games played on leisurely summer days. Located on top of a bluff overlooking Geneva Lake, this site offers a stunning, picturesque view of the lake and surrounding countryside.
(sources for information & pictures: Wisconsin Historical Society & Wis.Gov)
THE QUESTERS 72nd International Convention
"Something Special in Wisconsin" at Historic Pfister Hotel
Milwaukee, WI
May 13 thru 15, 2022
Grohmann Museum is part of Tours 5, 9 and 13
The Museum welcomes visitors to three floors of gallery space where the permanent collection is displayed along with special feature exhibitions. The Museum also has a spectacular rooftop sculpture garden, penthouse, auditorium, library, museum store, lounge and workshop
The atrium dome features eight commissioned stained-glass works that replicate paintings from the collection. Designed by Tylle and created by Mayer, the windows represent men and women in the roles of rolling miller, hay harvester, blacksmiths, carpenter, cooper, quarryman, working at a river valley iron smelter, and building the Tower of Babel.
Rooftop Sculpture Garden
A dozen large, bronze sculptures – men toiling in the field and foundry, heaving hammers or pinching molten metal with hot tongs – perch on the roofline of the Grohmann Museum. These fellows, each about 9 feet tall and weighing in at a thousand pounds apiece, have a commanding view of a city that was built on the hard work they depict.
The Collection
The Grohmann Museum Collection is comprised of more than 1,500 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism– dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.
(source: Grohmann Museum website)
"Something Special in Wisconsin" at Historic Pfister Hotel
Milwaukee, WI
May 13 thru 15, 2022
Grohmann Museum is part of Tours 5, 9 and 13
The Museum welcomes visitors to three floors of gallery space where the permanent collection is displayed along with special feature exhibitions. The Museum also has a spectacular rooftop sculpture garden, penthouse, auditorium, library, museum store, lounge and workshop
The atrium dome features eight commissioned stained-glass works that replicate paintings from the collection. Designed by Tylle and created by Mayer, the windows represent men and women in the roles of rolling miller, hay harvester, blacksmiths, carpenter, cooper, quarryman, working at a river valley iron smelter, and building the Tower of Babel.
Rooftop Sculpture Garden
A dozen large, bronze sculptures – men toiling in the field and foundry, heaving hammers or pinching molten metal with hot tongs – perch on the roofline of the Grohmann Museum. These fellows, each about 9 feet tall and weighing in at a thousand pounds apiece, have a commanding view of a city that was built on the hard work they depict.
The Collection
The Grohmann Museum Collection is comprised of more than 1,500 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism– dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.
(source: Grohmann Museum website)
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