If you like this article, read more about Milwaukee-area history and architecture in the hundreds of other similar articles in the Urban Spelunking series here.
There are a few historic concert venues around town – such as The Pabst and Riverside Theaters – there may be only one place where every generation from your great-grandparents to your grandchildren (maybe your great-greats, too, depending on your age!) have been able to dance to live music and that’s The Rave in the old Eagles Club, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Opened as a home to the Milwaukee branch of the national Fraternal Order of Eagles organization in 1927, the huge building currently has five venues in a variety of sizes, from bars to a ballroom, and hosts a slew of live music in all kinds of genres all year long.
Recently – as you can see from the photos here – The Rave brought back its annual Haunted Holidays tours and the attendant decorations.
On that occasion, I got an in-depth tour of the building, where I’ve seen concerts since 1983 and where, for a time in the 1980s, I had a gym membership.
First, a bit of history.
Like the Elks and Moose Lodge, the Eagles were a fraternal order that offered networking, social events, athletics and benevolent fundraising activities. It was founded in Seattle in 1898 as the Order of Goodfellows and changed its name to the Eagles the following year.
The Milwaukee Aerie #137 (lodges were called aeries as a nod to the word for an eagle’s nest) was founded in 1901 by 58 men who were mostly involved in the theater scene here, including theater managers, actors and the like. The first president Bart Rudells, for example, was the press agent for the Bijou Theater at 141 2nd St.
This could explain why the first Eagles clubhouse was located just across the alley from the Bijou, at 137 2nd St. for nearly two decades, beginning in 1905.
That three-story brick building – previously used as a gymnasium by William P. Lachenmeier – had bowling alleys in the basement, a bar on the first floor, lodge rooms and offices on the second floor and a meeting hall on the top floor.
However, on Dec. 7, 1922, a fire raged through the building, causing damage estimated at $75,000 (in 1922 money) and leading to the ultimate demolition of the building.
“The famous Eagles club bar, shorn of much of its glory by the Volstead Act (aka Prohibition), was utterly ruined by fire early Thursday,” the Journal reported that day. “Part of the roof collapsed and fell through three floors to the basement, wrecking the rear of the barroom. The Eagles lost $25,000 worth of fixtures and furniture and about $10,000 worth of uniforms, regalia and records.
“Many of the firemen were on familiar ground when they arrived to fight the flames, for the fire department is strongly represented among the thousands of members of the lodge. Intimate knowledge of the interior of the building, however, did not prevent them from being forced out into the street and alleys as the flames spread. Three times the firefighters had to retreat and flee the building as the fire swept forward upon them.”
One firefighter was treated and released from Emergency Hospital after a beam fell and hit him on the head.
The flames that shot up 300 feet high and smoke caused extensive damage in densely packed Downtown, as did the water poured on it by 11 engine companies, six truck companies and three fireboats. That water found its way into abandoned heat tunnels and spread itself to many neighboring structures.
Smoke filled many of the rooms in the Charlotte Hotel, which backed onto the rear of the Eagles building. At the old Randolph Hotel, next door to the Charlotte, guests were evacuated, just in case.
The Herman Andrae Electrical Co across the street had water in its basement, as did the Manhattan Building next door and the Majestic Building on Wisconsin Avenue, where the water caused the elevator systems to short circuit.
“With the fire under control, the rising flood in basements of a half dozen neighboring buildings were discovered and the engines put to work pumping out the water,” the newspaper reported. “The basements of the Merril and Garden Theaters were flooded worse than other buildings. The water was 12 feet deep in the Merrill Theater basement at 7 a.m. and 7 feet deep in the basement of the Garden Theater.
“Storerooms of merchants occupying space in the building were flooded. When the water began to rise in the basement of the Merrill Theater, scrub women moved musical instruments from the orchestra pit and dragged the heavy velvet curtain to the front of the house.”
The same MFD pumpers that poured water onto the fire were used to suck the water out of basements for much of the day after the overnight fire.
In the end, the building – owned by the Mariner Realty Co. – had only its walls still standing.
Fortunately for the Eagles, the $4,000 it had collected from 1,400 new members initiated into the club the evening before the fire was undamaged in the safe.
The Eagles quickly secured temporary offices in the Plankinton Arcade and prepared for a huge ceremony scheduled for just a couple days later when another 1,252 new members were initiated at the Auditorium (now the Miller High Life Theater).
As you can tell from these numbers, the Eagles were fast-growing in Milwaukee and by 1941 the Milwaukee aerie numbered 9,200 members, with another nearly 20,000 in the rest of Wisconsin.
The Brew City Eagles outnumbered even the membership of the founding city of Seattle.
Thus, it was clear that a new home would be required.
While Herman Andrae – whose building was damaged by the fire – bought the burned-out site to build an investment property, the Eagles considered some other sites for its new lodge building, including a spot on 6th Street near Wisconsin Avenue.
Perhaps most interesting was the potential purchase of the St. Charles Hotel on Water Street across from City Hall.
“Persistent rumors that the Eagles Club are negotiating for the St. Charles Hotel were afloat on Monday following a conference of two prominent members of the order with representatives of Col. Gustave Pabst, who controls the property,” wrote the Sentinel in January 1923. “Members of the fraternal order admitted that the purchase of the St Charles has been talked about, but refused to state that negotiations had been entered into.
“A two-year lease of the building now occupied by the Palace Dancing Academy on 6th Street near Grand Avenue was closed by the Eagles on Saturday. An announcement that the St. Charles Hotel was for sale was given out by the owners on Monday. The hotel is one of the landmarks of Milwaukee and at one time was considered one of the leading hotels of the city.”
In the end, the Eagles alit temporarily at the 6th Street location.
However, by the following November, the same paper reported that, “The Eagles Club will make a final selection of a site for a new clubhouse this week, according to officials,” and that decision found them purchasing property on what was, at that time, the far west side.
After having reportedly checked out 3o potential sites, the Eagles paid $100,000 in 1924 for the east half of the block on the southwest corner of 24th and Wisconsin, where the home of Franz Wollager and his wife Auguste Pritzlaff – daughter of hardware magnate John Pritzlaff – stood. (Franz was an officer in his father-in-law's company.)
Perhaps being ecologically-minded, or maybe just seeking to recoup as much of that $100,000 as possible, the Eagles advertised on Oct. 19, “Milwaukee Aerie No. 137 Fraternal Order of Eagles will offer for sale all of the trees, shrubbery, etc. on the site where the Eagles’ New Million Dollar Club House is to be built. One of the conditions of such sale is that everything sold must be removed by the buyer not later than Thanksgiving Day.”
In the meantime, the Eagles hired local architect Russell Barr Williamson – who studied and worked with Frank Lloyd Wright (read more about that here) – who designed a Mediterranean-inspired clubhouse of epic proportions.
Around the same time, Williamson would also draw plans for the Mediterranean-influenced atmospheric theater in Bay View called the Avalon, as well as the long-demolished Antlers and Randolph Hotels downtown.
The Eagles were not the only fraternal order working on a new home at this time. In May 1925, the Journal noted that, “Social and fraternal groups will expend about $2,800,000 for headquarters. Plans for new quarters for clubs and fraternal organizations have provided one of the chief building developments of the last year.
“The organizations which have definitely announced building programs are the Eagles Club, the Shriners, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ku Klux Klan. A building is also being planned by the Milwaukee University Club.”
In fact, the Shriners would build their own even more striking clubhouse – based on mosque designs – just a few blocks away on 30th and Wisconsin.
By this time, the Eagles had begun letting contracts on the building, which was expected to cost $1.5 million in the end, and later in May released the first rendering of the exterior of Williamson’s design.
In July, the Eagles listed the Wollaeger house for sale at auction, with the same stipulation as on the sale of the trees – it must be moved ASAP.
Later that month, Williamson began taking bids on the construction and in August, as 250 Milwaukee Eagles rode the rails to the national convention in Toledo, it was announced that building work would soon commence.
In November, a carnival event held at the Auditorium raised $50,000 toward the project, and in December bids were accepted from Continental Cement Tile Co. for the roof and Downey Heating Co. for the heating and ventilation. Fond du Lac-based Immel Construction was to be the general contractor.
In February 1926, newspapers reported that waste cinders from the Electric Company would be used in the construction of the building in the form of a new technology: cinder blocks.
“The cinders will have been crushed, washed and pressed with cement into blocks of standard building sizes before used,” the Journal noted, adding that 70,000 Cintrete blocks made by a new local company would go into the Eagles Club.
In June, the Eagles reported that the first $525,000 mortgage bond issue had been sold.
And on July 29, 1926, illuminated by evocative red flares, 10,000 were on hand to watch the laying of the building’s cornerstone, which required closing four blocks of Wisconsin Avenue to traffic and making use of the Schandein estate across the street.
Kansas City’s Conrad H. Mann – past grand worthy president and former head of Milwaukee Aerie No. 137 – spoke, vowing, “I will do everything in my power to bring the 1927 grand aerie convention to Milwaukee, which will mean 300,000 delegates swarming to the city.”
Although the building was not yet completed, it was already being used by mid-November, when a reunion of one of the initiation classes was held in the lodge rooms. The following month, thousands attended the annual three-day carnival.
Though there were many fabulous features of the new building, including an incredible ballroom with a balcony and a 75x50-foot swimming pool, in December and January all anyone could talk about was bowling.
“The boom of bowling pellets and crash of pins is to be heard soon at the new Eagles Club,” the Journal wrote on the day after Christmas. “Work has begun on 16 new alleys there and soon after the New Year they will be rushed to completion.
“Should Milwaukee bid for the 1928 American Bowling Congress championships, which is a possibility, mention is made that the event may be shifted to the Eagles. Not on the alleys being laid now but on new drives, for new drives are installed for every national tourney. The last ABC held here (in 1923) was conducted on 28 alleys planted in the main arena of the Auditorium.”
On Jan. 9, 1927, th Sentinel added, “The splendid new bowling alleys of the Eagles Club were awarded the Milwaukee Women’s Bowling Association classic in March. The grand layout of equipment at the Eagles clubhouse is also certain to be a factor in making the test attractive.”
In the same day’s paper, it was announced that the pool and bowling alleys would be finished by Feb. 1 and the ballroom – which at 200x130 feet would be the state’s largest – was due for completion early in March.
Soon after, discussion turned to boxing and the Eagles Secretary Victor Manhardt suggested that the first match could come as early as April.
“Personally, I would like to see Joey Sangor, Pinky Mitchell and Howard Bentz, the three outstanding Milwaukee boxers, on the same card,” Manhardt told the Journal. “Impossible? Hardly. Other cities have shown two champions on one card and there is no reason why Milwaukee, through the Eagles Club, cannot treat local fandom to an all-star program featuring three favorites.”
In mid-February, the boxing commission lifted its restriction on the number of boxing clubs of Milwaukee – which had been set at three – so that the Eagles could now apply to have one, and four days later, Milwaukee kegelers rejoiced at the opening of the bowling lanes.
“Bowling fans of the Milwaukee Eagles lodge were in the height of their glory on Saturday night when 16 shiny alleys were formally dedicated at the Eagles clubhouse and the balls were started rolling down the new drives,” the Journal reported on Feb. 20. “President Robert F. Schmidt gave the dedication address.
“The 16 teams of the Eagles Bowling League then took the drives and did some real shooting. Among the high scores rolled were Sam Wood 233, William Unke 221, Ted Hauf 220, Ed Minger 202, Joe Libesch 201 and Edward Koch 201. James Riskow was low for the evening with 88.”
Ouch. Sorry, James.
Although the Eagles were moving in by mid-March, a dedication ceremony was set for April 17.
More than 25,000 people turned up to mark the opening in the ballroom, where they also celebrated the first broadcast from the new WHAD radio broadcast studio located on the north end of the ballroom balcony.
The station, a 2-year-old collaboration between Marquette University and the Milwaukee Journal, planned to broadcast special events, dance programs and sporting events like bowling tournaments, swim meets and boxing matches.
The new building was a stunner, with men’s and ladies’ lounges, a large meeting hall called the President’s Room (now The Rave Hall), the ballroom, billiards room, a card-playing room with the four suits represented in the flooring, a cafeteria, a barber shop (in what is now The Rave Bar), an outdoor rooftop Spanish Palm Garden (now called the Penthouse Lounge) and other club spaces.
It was also an athlete’s dream with two handball courts – the only ones in the Midwest other than in St. Paul – a large gym, lockers, showers, steam room, sauna and the bowling alleys and a nine-foot-deep swimming pool that the Journal said, “from the swimmer’s point of view is a blessing,” with space for six to eight lanes depending on the event and low and high diving boards.
The pool – built to AAU specifications allowing for official amateur events – boasted three levels of purification.
“Before any water enters the tank it seeps through two gravel drums and then is subjected to ultraviolet ray and chlorination treatment,” the paper continued. “The authorities who have installed the system have assured the Eagles officials that the water is fit for drinking purposes six hours after people have been in swimming and that the tank need not be completely refilled oftener than once in three years.”
The pool room had-south facing windows that, “will eliminate all the usual troubles of dampness and artificial illumination,” and a special air purification system.
Plus, “the Eagles have eliminated the danger of bruised and broken toes by inserting strips of non-slip tile at both ends of the tank in such a position as to give the racer a sure footing as he braces his feet against the tank wall to turn. A trough, a few inches above the water line, will greatly facilitate the matter of touching for back and breast stroke swimmers.”
Non-slip tile was also installed on the pool deck, and lights were installed in the pool just below the surface of the water. Prisms were added to reflect the light underwater.
The tile in the pool area was to be as impressive as throughout the rest of the building.
“The walls and floor of the tank room are finished in soft tans and greens with a slight tinge of red to carry out the Spanish Moorish architecture,” the Journal noted. “The wall lights and the stairways with their wrought iron railings further carry out the style of the building.”
Sadly, not long after it opened, the pool was the scene of the mysterious death of 15-year-old Francis Wren, which you can read about in this Milwaukee Notebook story.
Mr. Mann kept his word and in August 100,000 Eagles landed here for the national convention.
Those folks surely were wowed by the clubhouse, which must have been unequalled among aeries. The exterior of the building blends Mediterranean elements in a tasteful building that benefits from the stripped classicism of the era.
The three arched windows out front are similar to the same configuration at Williamson’s Avalon Theater. The spandrels here, though, are heightened by natural forms inspired by the work of Wright’s master Louis Sullivan.
More decoration is in the cornice and in the terra cotta tile roofed colonnade at the top. Though it’s now long gone, a reflecting pool in front of the main entrance welcomed guests.
Throughout the building there are arches and colonnades and wrought iron railings and earthy tiles and plaster decoration, though often you can’t see some of it in the darkness of a concert setting.
Boxing ultimately did get underway at the Eagles Club in autumn of 1927 and during my career I even covered a match there, so it endured for decades.
From 1934 until 1968, the ballroom was home to Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom, where my grandmother used to dance to the likes of Glenn Miller and Guy Lombardo and enjoy entertainers like Bob Hope, Red Skelton and Dinah Shore.
Later, during my mom’s era, Bill Haley & His Comets played Devine’s at least three times and legends like Johnny Cash and bluesmen Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf performed there.
On a sadder note, the ill-fatted Winter Dance Party Tour featuring The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly & the Crickets, and Dion & the Belmonts kicked off there in January 1959. After 11 shows, a plane crash claimed the life of Holly, Valens, the Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson.
In June 7, 1964, four months after Beatlemania arrived on U.S. shores, a show by fellow British Invasion act the Dave Clark Five ended after in mayhem after just a few songs when 11,000 screaming kids turned up for a show in the ballroom that had a capacity of 2,500.
During the ‘60s, the NAACP Youth Council picketed the building in protest of the Eagles’ whites-only membership rules, leading to a change in that policy.
Devine’s closed after a dance on Feb. 25, 1968, though the Million Dollar Ballroom moniker continued to be used on and off into the 1970s.
By the time this music fan arrived in Milwaukee in 1983 he was able to see Gang of Four and Big Country in the President’s Room. Other bands who played there in the ‘80s included Metallica, Husker Du and Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy.
In 1988, the Eagles lost their palatial home in bankruptcy proceedings and it was bought by John Stanelle who ran it as Central Park Athletic Club, where I played some racquetball, swam a couple times in the pool and enjoyed the occasional schvitz, sometimes to the sound of bands like Black Uhuru soundchecking in the Omnibus, booked by Tony Selig, whose two locations of The Underground were landmark live music clubs here.
During the Omnibus and Central Park era you could have seen Cro-Mags, New Model Army, Anthrax, The Fixx, Fishbone, Mother Love Bone, The Exploited, Type O Negative, Alice in Chains, The Cramps, Ace Frehley, Killing Joke, The Pixies, Black Uhuru and others.
The building was sold in 1992 and this is where the story of The Rave begins.
Started by local music industry veterans Joe Balestrieri and Leslie West – who booked Alpine Valley for many years – it’s almost easier to name the acts that HAVEN’T played The Rave than the ones that have performed there.
It has booked everything from metal to rap to Britpop to emo to you name it.
And the place looks great.
It just got all new HVAC in all the spaces and in the coming months new sound systems will be installed in all the music venues, too.
The ballroom is as stunning as ever and the rooftop Penthouse offers great views of the Downtown skyline.
Many of the former spaces like lounges and lodge rooms have been converted to backstage areas for performers, including rooms specially designed for some, like Kid Rock.
The old billiards room is now The Rave offices, the corridors of which are lined with concert posters, gold and platinum records and other rock 'n' roll memorabilia.
Although the bowling alleys are gone, some of the lanes are still down there (you can see the guide dots and arrows in the floor) and others were removed to create bar tops in the upstairs venues.
The pinsetting machinery was removed long ago.
The athletic facilities, sadly, are also gone, though you can still see the steam room, sauna, locker rooms and the pool, which is empty.
The Rave’s Building Manager Colin O'Connell says he’s been told that the pool drain was filled with concrete, making the revival of that feature unlikely (or at least very expensive).
Still, it remains a big figment of Milwaukee’s imagination, especially now that it’s covered in graffiti from the many artists who have performed there.
When I was down there I saw scrawlings from Marilyn Manson, Twenty Seconds to Mars, Steve Aoki (who returns to The Rave on Jan. 31), Hozier, Lainey Wilson and many others.
Also down there is a now-legendary signature left by Mac Miller who died not long after performing at The Rave in 2018.
There are many legends of hauntings in the building, but I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced anything, even in the spookiest areas of the place, including the tunnel that encircles the pool, with its eerie blue glow.
More interesting to me is the tangible history of the place, its architecture and the fact that it remains a vibrant center for music-loving Milwaukeeans.
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.
%20copy.jpg)
