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For more than a century, Yerkes Observatory was, one could argue, the center of the astronomy universe.
Among the many that worked there were Gerard Kuiper – of the Kuiper Belt fame – Nobel Prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Carl Sagan, William Wilson Morgan (who discovered the spiral arms of the Milky Way) and NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman.
The stunning Henry Ives Cobb-designed Beaux Arts building with its huge telescope and moveable domes sits in an Olmsted-designed landscape just off the shore of Geneva Lake in Williams Bay.
Yerkes was one of just two places that Albert Einstein said he absolutely had to see on his first visit to the United States in 1921. The other was Niagara Falls.
However, when in 2018 the University of Chicago decided to close the building it owned and operated since 1897, the future of this hulking scientific and architectural landmark seemed grim.
Two years later it donated the building to the newly formed nonproft Yerkes Observatory / Yerkes Future Foundation.
You can read more in-depth about the history of the observatory here.
Visiting in 2021, then-new executive director Dennis Kois walked me through every nook and cranny of the huge and hugely impressive facility detailing the extensive work required to reopen it to the public and the out-of-this-world costs associated with doing that work properly.
He envisioned nature trails and restoring homes on the property for artists in residence and visiting scientists, plus concerts and weddings and revived tours of the building, as well as reopening the telescope to astronomers.
And that was just the start.
But restoring the exterior masonry alone would cost nearly $20 million, he said.
Since then, Kois and his team have raised $30 million – with $65 million more to go; hired a staff of 16, including astronomers, engineers, educators and tour guides; got the Great Refractor telescope – one of the three largest in the world – working again; brought back visits by school groups; started a science fiction film series; created a public speakers series with Nobel laureates, astronauts, artists, environmental innovators, a former U.S. poet laureate, Grammy winners, composers and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”-winners; tapped artists to create permanent and temporary sculptures on the grounds; added four miles of nature trails with the assistance of local scout troops; revived public tours; and re-opened the facility to astronomers, post-doctoral candidates and interns from around the world.
I had to go back and see for myself.
When I got there, Director of Programs & External Affairs Walt Chadick told me that nearly 100,000 people have visited Yerkes since it reopened in May 2022.
And just over 30 more people were arriving moments after I did on a Friday evening – everyday folks who had a telescope at home and brought them over for a class on how to best use them.
Outside, Chadick shows me the result of the effort to restore the intricate and ornate exterior masonry, which is complete on the south side of the building. Work will begin in July on the north side.
The exterior restoration on the north side of the building, Chadick says, required sourcing 6,000 bricks from a company in Scotland to match the existing masonry.
But that's not all.
“We break ground on a 27-foot tall playground based on a supernova in spring,” Chadick adds, describing a completely accessible playground for kids of all abilities. “It's the most rad playground we've ever seen. It's built for kids (to play) all together. It's not segregated, it's this inclusive thing.
“We are also going to break ground on a 200-seat glass box theater next door.”
Near the south entrance is a commissioned artwork created by sculptor Ashley Zelinskie, who, Chadick notes is, “a Brooklyn-based sculptor who was NASA's official sculptor for the James Webb telescope.
“She came here for a long time and worked with us and built this. It's just the first in what we think will be many little nuggets throughout these 50 acres.”
Inside, the entirety of the main floor has been restored and gleams. A wheelchair elevator has been installed, making Yerkes accessible for the first time ever.
And they’ve even installed a gift shop with some of the coolest stuff (Moon Pies, David Bowie “Aladdin Sane” coasters and other fun sorta-astronomy-related merch).
Other back of house spaces are again in use as labs and work spaces for visiting scientists or are waiting their turn for a refresh.
In one (pictured below), a staff scientist works on the astronomical equipment at the observatory.
In another (above), work progresses on digitizing 180,000 historic space photographs taken at Yerkes.
Though there is a small exhibition space on the first floor and, behind the scenes, spaces packed full of an incredible range of computers and equipment – some of it bearing the NASA logo – Chadick says, “We’re really trying hard not to become a museum.”
Inside the giant dome, the Giant Refractor is as awe-inspiring as ever. Doesn’t matter how many times you see, it’s incredible every time. When I visited three years ago, it was covered in plastic, so this time was especially rewarding.
Chadick demonstrates the movement of the dome, which allows the telescope 360-degree access to the heavens, and the elevator – aka the entire floor – which allows access to the telescope’s eyepieces and controls. He also demonstrated how, despite its size, the telescope is easily moved by hand.
They’ve held concerts in this space and one can imagine that classical or acoustic music in the soaring, “live” domed space sounds incredible. An acoustical engineer is due to visit soon, too, to help improve the sound in the dome so that talks can also be held there.
You can see upcoming events and book tickets for those – including this Friday's S. Carey performance – and for a couple different kinds of tours at the Yerkes website.
But while the public is flowing in, work continues on the building. It’s a big project but Chadick says that things have been manageable.
”We pretty much coordinate it,” he says. “We don't do tours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and most of Thursday. So those are their days to come (for construction work).”
The biggest challenges, unsurprisingly, are money and time.
“We have a 10-year plan that we've put together because you can't do (it) all (at once),” Chadick says. “You've got to do the exterior balcony before you fix the dome top, that kind of stuff. There's a time element to that.
“But (initially) we were just raising money willy-nilly rather than with a purpose of, say, ‘let's raise money for the bricks.’ We were just raising money and then we would allocate it. We've got a professional fundraiser of director of development now and they have this pinpointed strategy of, ‘let's raise this (amount) for all of these things.”
Kois notes that to date Yerkes has not gotten any funding from state or local government.
"A big chunk of what we need to operate Yerkes each year is sent in by regular folks," he says, "$25 and $50 gifts from donors around Wisconsin."
Thanks to those donations, as well as larger gifts, too, work will continue on this important project, which while it may initially have seemed like a longshot, continues to make impressive progress.
"The founding trustees who convinced the University of Chicago to gift the observatory to a brand new non-profit would be the first to tell you they couldn't have imagined the epic scale and complexity of what would be needed," Kois says. "And that's a good thing, or Yerkes might have been turned into a luxury housing development with a fancy 'observatory clubhouse,' which was what had already been proposed for it.
"There were definitely naysayers, and still are, but if we hadn't believed that it had to be saved, and had the ambition to create something totally new, Yerkes would never have been reborn as one of Wisconsin's most unique science and cultural institutions."
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.
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