A STITCH IN TIME

By Bobby Tanzilo of OnMilwaukee.com

Photography By Eric Halverson

A century after its completion, the Dye House remains the tallest building in the Third Ward.

And even when it loses that title to a new 31-story riverfront apartment tower under construction on St. Paul Avenue, its history — and that of the related Phoenix Building — will still loom large in the Ward.

“I think Halling & Cayo was the first tenant,” recalls Engberg Anderson partner Bill Robison, a current tenant of the building. “And they get some massive award for bravery.

“THEY WERE PIONEERS. TO MOVE INTO A BUILDING WITH NO STREET PRESENCE, NO LOBBY, NO PASSENGER ELEVATORS ... THEY HAD TO USE THE STAIRS OR THE FREIGHT ELEVATOR. IT WAS A ROUGH ARRIVAL EXPERIENCE FOR THEIR CLIENTS.”

Now those clients might barely recognize it as the same place. There are three elevators, basement parking, a newly renovated lobby and a penthouse residence on top.

The Dye House and Phoenix buildings, which were once connected by tunnel, are among the survivors of a complex the Phoenix Knitting Company built in the neighborhood. Buildings 1 and 3 of the complex, at 180 N. Broadway and 207 N. Milwaukee, also survive.

Phoenix — which made numerous products, including women’s and men’s hosiery, gloves and mittens — was founded in 1880, taking on its mythical avian name in 1897. By the early 1890s, the company had about 150 employees working 100 knitting machines.

In 1917, the seven-story Phoenix Building (then Plant No. 4, 219 N. Milwaukee St.) — designed by architect Otto Uehling — opened with a basement dye facility, first-floor printing and shipping facilities, a second-floor packing facility and five floors of knitting machines above.

Closing out a six-year building boom to meet growing demand, the eight-story Dye House (then Plant No. 6, 320 E. Buffalo St.) — designed by architectural/engineering firm Lockwood & Greene — augmented Phoenix’s space. In fact, it accommodated its growth into one of the largest silk hosiery factories in the country. It employed hundreds of Milwaukeeans, many of them women.

After resisting pressure to cut costs by moving south, the company did exactly that in 1954. However, it maintained about 500 workers at its Milwaukee office, warehousing and finishing operations. In 1959 the company was acquired, and its Brew City presence was nothing but a memory. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Over the years, the Phoenix Building was occupied by offices, small manufacturing firms, warehousing and even retail shops like the Piano Gallery. Current tenants include Penworthy publishing company, Third Ward Dental and law firms Gingras, Thomsen & Wachs and Mastantuono Coffee & Thomas SC, among others.

By the mid-1970s, the Dye House was purchased by Jack Gardner as a new home for his ArtCraft company, which moved from Pittsburgh Avenue.

“We made all the seats for Greyhound,” recalls Gardner’s son, Mike. “Through the years, we got into more and more mass transit. We were, I think, the sole supplier of seating for Amtrak. We also did sewing for almost all the airlines. They were all manufactured in the Third Ward and we would ship out full assemblies. We did the frame, the shell, the upholstery, all in that building.”

Gardner recalls practically growing up in the building, working at the company, selling parking in the lot during Summerfest. His father sold the company in 1994, though it continued to operate there for a few more years.

Gardner bought the building from his dad and worked on renovating and upgrading it. He brought in tenants like Halling & Cayo, The Art Institute and MODA3 apparel and footwear.

Though he sold the building to Chicago-based Singerman Real Estate in 2018, a number of the tenants Gardner brought in still occupy the building. One such tenant, Engberg Anderson Architects, did design work on the structure’s renovations, adding new electrical, HVAC and more.

“What’s really unique about this building is that almost every historic building in the Third Ward is a timber frame building,” says Robison, “and we’ve got these massive concrete mushroom columns.”

That provides a whopping live load of 180 pounds per square foot on the top floor and 150 on the floors below. “That’s enough to make this a public library, where (book) stacks are that heavy,” marvels Robison.

ENGBERG ANDERSON’S OFFICE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF HOW TO REPURPOSE MANUFACTURING SPACE. “WHEN WE MOVED IN HERE, WE REALLY WANTED TO EXPRESS THAT (PAST),” SAYS ROBISON. “WE SANDBLASTED ALL THE OLD PAINT OFF THE COLUMNS AND RAISED THE FLOORS SO WE COULD USE THE CLERESTORY WINDOWS. WE WANTED MORE LIGHT AND LOWER SILLS AND RAN THE MECHANICALS UNDERNEATH.”

Robison says the wide-open floor plate also provided a boost to his staff, which had previously been spread out in a less collaboration-friendly arrangement.

“We were all just spread out on two floors, kind of wrapped around a central atrium,” he recalls. “When we moved here, I felt like I met some of the staff that I didn’t really know and started to know what everybody was working on again, because we have one big space.

“It also changed everything for our staff. It gave them access to all the businesses in the Third Ward. And that was a big deal.”

A pair of hands that have known hard work rests atop a lap covered in a work apron.

This is the image — a likeness of Bavette la Boucherie owner and James Beard Awardnominated butcher and chef Karen Bell ... or a portion of her — depicted in a fivestory-tall mural painted on the north wall of the Dye House, where women worked dyeing hosiery for Phoenix Hosiery Co.

Painted in 2019 by German artist Case Maclaim after building owners Singerman Real Estate hired The Wallpapered City’s Stacy Williams-Ng to spearhead a mural initiative. “The Unsung Hero,” was intended, the artist said, “To pay tribute to Milwaukee’s female working class heroes from the past, and to celebrate the present ones.”

Artist Maclaim saw it as a means for embracing the contributions of all women, rather than a single, specific one.

“It’s a celebration of women’s work,” Williams-Ng said, “past and present.”