BLAZING FORWARD

By Bobby Tanzilo of OnMilwaukee.com

Photography by Eric Halverson; historical photography provided by Milwaukee Fire Historical Society

AFTER A FIERY PAST, THE FORMER ENGINE 10 FIREHOUSE HAS FOUND NEW LIFE AS THE ASCENSION THIRD WARD CLINIC

By Nan Bialek

When the Third Ward fire destroyed much of the neighborhood in 1892, the six-year-old Engine 10 firehouse on Broadway earned the dubious distinction of being the only Milwaukee firehouse to be consumed by flames. Its successor, designed by firefighter-turned-architect Sebastian Brand, rose like a phoenix on the same site (174 N. Broadway), the year after the fire.

Recently, that long-decommissioned firehouse reinvented itself as an Ascension Medical Group Wisconsin health clinic. The former equipment bay behind the big garage door is now a roomy reception area. The consultation rooms, lab, doctors’ offices and other facilities are located in an attached former Phoenix Knitting Works building. Other services – including a walk-in urgent care and general surgery –are also available at the 11,000-square-foot clinic, which opened in 2020.

A Watchful Eye

Even though firemen haven’t occupied the old Engine Company No. 10 quarters at 176 N. Broadway since 1949, the site was home to the company from its inception in 1886. And it remains clear that this lovely three-story red brick building was a firehouse.

That’s due in part to the bronze sculpture of a seated firefighter and his trusty canine companion seated on a bench. Artist Michael Capser created “Engine Company No. 10” in 1990 at the behest of Thomas Wamser, whose Beck Box and Label Company acquired the building in 1959 and occupied it for decades.

Some say the firefighter is watching for potential fires, though in the early days that vigilance would’ve been kept from the top of the long-gone tower on the roof. The sculpture has become a favorite Third Ward photo spot, and occasionally folks will sit on the fireman’s lap and say “cheese.”

“WITH THE HISTORY OF THIS BUILDING AND IT BEING A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN COME AND BE HELPED,” SAYS DR. JESSICA LENAGHAN, A FAMILY MEDICINE DOCTOR AT THE THIRD WARD CLINIC. “IT’S REALLY COOL TO CONTINUE THE TRADITION OF FIREFIGHTERS’ MEDICAL CARE HERE.”

The firehouse – the upper floors of which have separate users – served the neighborhood for 56 years as home to Engine 10.

During its run it was also quarters for Engine 4 in the 1920s and Water Tower 1 from 1921 until 1949.

In 1949, Engine 10 was moved, the Water Tower completely rebuilt and relocated, and the firehouse converted to storage for a decade. Then the City of Milwaukee listed the building for sale and it was purchased by the Beck Box and Label Company, which occupied it for many years. In 1968, the firehouse served as a stand-in for turnof-the-century Chicago in the Brian Keith film “Gaily, Galy.”

By the 1990s, Beck CEO Thomas Wamser had overseen the renovation of the building – which had served as a loading dock for the company’s larger building to the north – and was using the first floor as a showplace for his classic car collection. After Beck moved out of the neighborhood, Oregon-based Pendleton Woolen Mills opened a retail store where fire trucks once parked. The store closed in 2019, and Ascension stepped in, tapping Eppstein Uhen Architects to design a more than $7 million renovation.

Because the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Historic Third Ward Historic District, the exterior – which had already been restored – could not be touched. Inside, very little of the firehouse remained, beyond the beautiful staircase that survives but no longer opens to the second floor, according to EUA Senior Design Architect David Groth.

“Someone before us had put in the coffered ceiling that runs through that whole space and it was a really dark wood — kind of dated — but we did preserve it and just painted it white,” Groth recalls. “We also exposed the cream city brick that’s on some of the inside walls, so now when you come into that space, it’s got a little more of a Milwaukee feel to it.”

Even though the place has changed dramatically since the days of Dalmations and brass fireman’s poles, it does still manage to feel like a firehouse. The vintage Milwaukee Fire Department photos in the reception area add a nice touch of history. 1. 2. 3.

3 Fast Facts

The firehouse once had a tower – now long-gone – projecting above the roof line. In the old days these towers served dual purposes, serving both as a facility for hanging wet hoses to prevent rot and as a lookout for fires.

Before Engine 10 was commissioned in 1886, the Third Ward didn’t have a fire company of its own. The neighborhood relied instead on Engine 3 and Truck 2, stationed on 1st and Virginia in Walker’s Point and, if the fire was near the water, the fireboat.

When the Broadway firehouse was closed in 1949, Engine 10 was relocated temporarily to Station 1 on Broadway and Wells Street until its new quarters at 5600 W. Oklahoma Ave. were completed. Engine 10 continues to operate out of that station today.