The Elizabeth Plankinton House was a stone structure in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, intended to be the residence for Elizabeth Plankinton. Built between 1886 and 1888 by John Plankinton for his daughter as a wedding gift, it cost at least $100,000. Architect Edward Townsend Mix designed the house in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It was located opposite John Plankinton's own house on Grand Avenue in an upscale residential area of the western part of the city, near other mansions. Mrs. Margaret Johnston was the only person to have a permanent residence in the house. The Knights of Columbus used the property between 1910 and 1978. Despite being listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the house was demolished on October 11, 1980, to make way for student facilities for Marquette University. The facility ultimately built was the Marquette Alumni Memorial Union. It is extremely close to the site of the house, but the majority of the land occupied by the house remains a grass lawn in 2020.
Construction
The three-bedroom house was located at 1432 Grand Avenue, later known as 1492 West Wisconsin Avenue, in Milwaukee. The Knights of Columbus had the house number changed from "1432" to the more historic "1492" date, and it was also referred to as the "Knights of Columbus Building". Local historians H. Russell Zimmermann and Mary Ellen Young attribute the house as being designed by Edward Townsend Mix. It was a three-story stone structure with an attic and basement. According to the Historic American Buildings Survey done in 1980 by the United States Department of the Interior, the house was constructed between 1886, when ownership was transferred to Elizabeth, and 1888, when it appears in Rascher's Fire Insurance Atlas of City of Milwaukee. Zimmerman notes that an inscription dated 1887 was discovered on a piece of roofing slate in 1979, and suggests that the house was likely finished in that year; unfortunately, Elizabeth's husband-to-be married another woman in September 1887. Reports of the costs of construction vary from $100,000 to $150,000. The basic building was square and had three projecting bays. The front of the house had a three-story conical turret, a stone porch, a porte-cochere, and a sunroom on the west side. The width was around 50 feet overall, depending on the section of the house measured. The depth of the house was about 70 feet, depending on which part. The exterior walls were of Cream City brick from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. It was trimmed with carved buff ashlar sandstone, granite columns, terracotta tiles, and metal work. The main entrance facing south had a one-and-a-half-story entrance porch with arches. The house roof had red clay tiles. On the east side of the house was a porte-cochere, a protruding exterior part with a round arched opening and a flat roof for a weather-protected side entrance. This entrance had granite columns with leafed plants growing all around them. According to Zimmermann, the Plankinton mansion was exceptional in that "almost the entire project is designed and drawn by an architect shows in the way all of the components of a given room are compatibly related to the whole." The amount of money spent was reflected in the craftsmanship, which he illustrates with a first-floor fireplace: The HABS report notes that a skylight was removed in 1976 and sold, but that it was in size and had a mosaic design of 25,000 parts of zinc-framed stained glass pieces lined with copper. In line with John Plankinton's philosophy and to prove the capabilities of local workers, he ensured that "every part of it was made and prepared in Milwaukee by Milwaukee men," as was reported in John's 1891 obituary in the Milwaukee Sentinel.
History
The Elizabeth Plankinton House was a mansion in Milwaukee built in 1886 as a wedding gift to Elizabeth from her father, businessman John Plankinton, known as "A Merchant Prince and Princely Merchant" for his philanthropy. The house was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. It was one of many such mansions owned by the wealthy in the west part of Milwaukee in the late 19th century. It was in the residential area on Grand Avenue in the downtown district of the city. Elizabeth was abandoned by her fiancé, sculptor Richard Hamilton Park, when he married a dancer from Minneapolis on September 18, 1887. She was so distraught that she turned down the wedding gift and never lived in the house. She never married, and died in 1923. The stone structure was not occupied for almost 10 years. In 1896, Mrs. Margaret Johnston, a widow, bought the house to live in, and it passed on to her family upon her death in 1904. They sold it in 1910 to the local Knights of Columbus, who used it as their local city facility. In 1915 they erected a two-story rear addition that was 93 feet wide by 144 feet deep and was used as an auditorium and gymnasium. They used the main house as their headquarters from about 1919 to 1978. However, ownership was acquired in 1967 by the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority, and they passed it to Marquette University in 1975. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Gallery of pictures
Demolition
A 1978 newspaper article discussing the house was titled "Ugly Behemoth Blocks Progress", and there were certainly plenty of negative views of the house. Representatives of Marquette University argued that the "Knights of Columbus mansion is neither historical nor architecturally significant. It is the product of the whims of the owner and the architect, and does not represent a true example of any particular style of architecture" and that "to offer an eyesore like the Knights of Columbus building as an example of our great architectural tradition will make Milwaukee the laughing stock of the nation.... This mansion has no significant historical value... a monument to Victorian bad taste." Zimmermann offered a strong defense of the building in a 1979 article in Milwaukee, the Metropolitan Magazine, arguing it was "Milwaukee's finest residential example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style", designed by "the area's most prominent 19th century architect," and was still in "relatively fine original condition". On the point of its condition at that time, the HABS report described it as having a pristine exterior and an intact interior. Zimmermann concluded: By 1980, the House was entirely surrounded by other buildings of the university. Marquette had it demolished on October 11, 1980, approximately two months after the HABS survey report was issued, and despite its 1976 inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Its destruction led to the formation of the City of Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission in 1981, with the aim of protecting Milwaukee's architectural heritage.
