Have you ever wanted to live in a house designed by landmark Milwaukee architect Edward Townsend Mix?
Now’s your chance. The 1889 Queen Anne stunner of a house that Mix designed for Northwestern Fuel Company superintendent William Simpson – at 3127 W. Wisconsin Ave. – is on the market.
Listed at $395,000, the nine-bedroom house has two baths in its 5,300 square feet. It sits on a quarter-acre lot. (NOTE: The price has since been lowered to $299,000.)
The house has a turret, beautiful woodwork, leaded glass and hardwood floors.
You can see more photos and the complete Harris Realty Group listing here.
Simpson arrived in Milwaukee in 1877 and a dozen years later, tapped Milwaukee’s most respected architect to design a new home for him. Mix had drawn the Mitchell and Mackie Buildings, the Burnham Block, the towering Old Main at the Soldiers Home, Alexander Mitchell’s mansion (now the Wisconsin Club), the David Barnett Gallery, The Fitzgerald and other beautiful structures here before moving to Minneapolis in 1890.
Despite the fact that the house long served as offices, a 2015 Mead & Hunt survey reported that the home’s interior layout remains mostly original.
“The first floor features an original entryway and foyer with wood built-ins, a double-sided fireplace, and a grand staircase with gingerbread fretwork, turned banisters, a carved newel post, and a glazed stained-glass window with two main lights and a three-panel transom on the landing,” it noted. “A servant's staircase is located at the rear of the house. Also on the first floor are a sitting room, parlor, and dining room that incorporate original wood moulding, cabinetry, arched entryways, and pocket doors.
“Four intact fireplaces remain, which attach to two exterior chimneys. The second floor has a central hall that leads to four former bedrooms that are now used as offices. Some minimal changes were required to convert the house into an office, including the renovation of a kitchen on the south end of the first floor to an office, bathroom, and copy room; the addition of a staircase between the second and third floors; and the conversion of the third floor into a library and filing room."
Here are just some of the two dozen photos you’ll find in the listing...
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.
