Urban Spelunking is brought to you by Nicolet Law.
(NOTE: On Sunday, Aug. 18, Saint Bernard held its last services in its church in Tosa Village before its merger with Christ King. To mark that occasion, we're resharing this 2016 look at the Saint Bernard building which will likely soon be razed to make way for an apartment development. Please note that the event described in the article took place at the time the post originally appeared)
On Saturday, Nov. 5 (2016), the Archdiocese of Milwaukee swings open the doors to four parishes around Milwaukee to welcome the community in for behind the scenes tours and more.
We're writing about all four parishes before the event. In this post, we visit Saint Bernard's in Tosa.
The history of Saint Bernard on this site at 1500 N. Wauwatosa Ave. dates back to 1911 when parishioners organized and a mass was held at the Knights Templar Hall in June.
That autumn, the small congregation purchased the home of Tosa pioneer John D. Hemlock, located on the two-acre site where Saint Bernard is still situated.
Adjoining land was purchased in 1915 and by 1919 a two-room schoolhouse was built.
In 1927 a basement church and rectory were inaugurated, but the plan to build the upper church were thwarted by the onset of the Great Depression.
Property to the west was acquired in 1935 and the current school building was erected there in 1955.
The first "real" upper church finally became a reality in 1962-3 and that is the modern church you see today, designed by Brust & Brust, with its rainbows of colored glass, soaring arches in the sanctuary and brick bell tower.
While it's not the kind of architecture that typically catches my eye, the interior of St. Bernard is quite nice: airy and bright and when the sun hits the colored glass at the right angle, a pleasant mix of hues illuminates parts of the sanctuary.
"In 1980, the Tosa Community Food Pantry was established, and in 1991, the Sinsinawa Dominicans sisters left the school," the Wisconsin Historical Society's Architectural Inventory entry for the property notes.
"The rectory was relocated to a property behind the church and school at 7517 Lincoln Place in 2000, and extensive renovations, including new offices, gymnasium and elevator, were undertaken the same year. The former rectory and convent building were demolished."
When you visit as part of the Archdiocese's VIP event from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, you'll get to see most every part of the sprawling place, from the sanctuary to the food pantry to the boiler room to the school (which merged with nearby Pius X school in 2010 to create Wauwatosa Catholic School, which has an enrollment around 250).
Best of all, you'll get to go up to the roof, where perhaps the best view of Wauwatosa – notice how the medical complex to the west looks like a city all its own – awaits you.
What you won't do – well, the raffle winner will, but the rest won't – is climb the metal ladder and then the wooden staircase up to the bells atop the tower facing Harwood Avenue.
But I was pleased to get to do that, so I can share photos with the folks that can't make the climb themselves.
The VIP event is free and all are welcome. A shuttle will run between the four sites all day long, so you can walk to or park at one and just ride the bus. Plus, the event was organized by Amy Grau who, until this year, was a key organizer of Doors Open Milwaukee.
"There are 197 very important parishes within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and the ultimate goal for this new event is to eventually invite and welcome people from all over the Archdiocese and beyond to all 197 of them, four at a time," reads a press release from the Archdiocese.
"This brand new, free community event will feature four different parishes each year, in hopes to inspire all who visit to discover how four very different churches shape a community and impact lives."
Here are some more images from Saint Bernard:
The colored glass
The view from the roof
The cross wall
The way up
One of the bells
There are four bells, cast in Cincinnati
An automated bell ringer
The way back down
Read my story about Our Lady of Guadalupe (Holy Trinity) here, about All Saints here and about Bay View's Immaculate Conception here.
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.
