This browser does not support the Video element.
Historic 1890s Milwaukee building being demolished
It will take nearly a month for a demolition contractor to take down a turn-of-the-century building, with a history that harkens back to Milwaukee’s booming brewing industry, that started to collapse earlier this week.
MILWAUKEE - It will take nearly a month for a demolition contractor to take down a turn-of-the-century building, with a history that harkens back to Milwaukee’s booming brewing industry, that started to collapse earlier this week.
Demolition underway
What we know:
Demolition of the building at 448 E. Bruce St., in the city’s Harbor View neighborhood, started Thursday under a city raze order, after the south wall of the 7-story building partially collapsed Monday afternoon. The demolition plan from the contractor, HM Brandt, shows the contractor plans on having the building down and clearing the site by the end of the month.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
"So, my first reaction is water must have got in and corroded something over time," said Ed Sippel, a structural engineer and an assistant professor at MSOE.
Sippel, who lives nearby, said the collapse is providing some real-time examples and a way to look at the innards of the building’s turn-of-the-century brick construction, and provide an example to his students of what could go wrong.
Milwaukee National Warehouse collapse, building to be demolished
The Milwaukee DNS said a vacant building in the Harbor View neighborhood, which partially collapsed Monday, is subject to an emergency raze order.
While Whether it was water degrading the brick and mortar walls, or a lack of water protecting wood footings supporting the structure and exposing them to air, Sippel says water was likely involved in the hulking building’s demise, along with gravity.
"Whether it was on the foundation on the bottom, or one of the two or three floors started separating, all of a sudden, something was a little more deteriorated, happened to be a little windier day, something else got added to the floor that has been sitting there in a while. And that – maybe it was even both – everything at the same time. And that's what makes this accident happen."
History of the building
The backstory:
Archived fire insurance maps show a building with the same footprint, dimensions and general layout, dating the building back to at least 1894, when the building served as a malthouse for the Kraus and Merkel Malting Company, and later the American Malting Company.
Photos taken by a Jones Island school teacher, in 1904 or 1905, appear to show the malthouse in the background, beyond the American Malting Company’s riverfront grain silos and elevator.
By 1926, with the country in the throes of prohibition, Milwaukee Storage Company was tied to the property and built a five-story warehouse to the east of the malthouse, according to city building permits housed at the Milwaukee Public Library. Six years later, letters in the library’s archive show National Warehouse Corporation acquired the land through quit claim deed.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
But not long after, records show the city had issues with National Warehouse Corp. and buildings on the large parcels of land, namely a grain elevator and silos to the west of the malthouse.
Letters between city inspector Leon Gurda, and National Warehouse Corp, detail the back and forth as the city tried to persuade the company to demolish the old elevator and silos, as the city deemed they were structurally unsafe. Records show those structures did come down sometime in 1942.
But the neighboring malthouse still stood, with portions of it being used by various companies for storage over the years, including the Fresno Wine Company in 1945 for storage and bottling, according to city records.
The Source: FOX6 cited city records, historical records, and archived fire insurance maps to produce this story. FOX6 previously reported on the partial collapse and demolition.