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Milwaukee, like most cities, is criss-crossed with underground tunnels of all kinds, some still functional, others less so, still others long since filled in. Some are deep and others not so far below the surface.
One example is being discussed these days by the City of Milwaukee’s Plan Commission.
The commission is looking at an air and subterranean lease for a tunnel at 5920 W. Center St., which is owned by the City of Milwaukee, which acquired it through property tax foreclosure.
According to city documents, the tunnel is currently the subject of a special privilege and the effort aims to convert that to a space lease, which, “is more thorough in delineating rights and responsibilities for the structure.”
The tunnel runs under an alley from the Center Street building to a large underground storage room beneath a paved lot just north of the alley.
Also on the lot, in the northwest corner, is a small staircase building with an air vent that connects to the room. The plans for the project show a freight elevator just south of that staircase, though it’s unclear whether or not that was actually built.
At the moment, the room is filled with three to four feet of water, Department of City Development staff tells me, so it is not considered safe to enter.
The tunnel is 10 feet wide and between 7 feet 8 inches and 10 feet 6 inches tall. It runs under the 18-foot alley. It is constructed of reinforced concrete with 12-inch thick walls, a four-inch thick floor and an 8-inch thick ceiling.
The tunnel was built to plans by architect Donald Allen Davis in 1968 for the Kenwood Television Studios, a TV sales and repair shop, which erected its building there 10 years earlier.
The Kenwood business was started 10 years before that, in 1948, at 3124 N. Downer Ave. (now home to a new Valentine Coffee location), where brothers Donald and Jerome Kadrich converted the former Paschen’s grocery store and butcher shop into a showroom for the new home entertainment technology.
In mid-September 1958, a rendering of the Center Street building’s interior was published in the Journal.
“A large fireplace will be the feature of the new Kenwood Television store at 5920 W. Center St., when it opens about Oct. 15,” the caption read. “The fireplace will be in the center of the showroom of the $110,000 building.
“Donald Kadrich, president of the company, said he believed the fireplace would add a homey atmosphere to the store.”
Just after this, the Kadrich brothers sold their 6-year-old Ken-Com closed circuit television systems division to the owners of the Appleton Post-Crescent and West Allis Star newspapers.
Once the new West Side store opened, the Downer Avenue shop remained open for about a year.
Despite having annual sales of about $4 million, the shop closed around 1982 due to the changing retail landscape that found most people buying televisions from high-volume, big box stores.
In recent years, the building was home to a day care.
"The City intends to market this property after the subterranean lease agreement is approved and the water is pumped out of the basement," says DCD Commercial Property Disposition Manager Matt Haessly.
"Upon sale, the subterranean lease will be executed between the City and the Buyer. This is a recordable instrument alerting the future owners that a tunnel exists along with future obligations."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
