It’s been a long road but the 1880s former McKinley Elementary School, on 20th and Vliet, today will start welcoming its first residents.
Just a few years ago, it seemed unlikely the abandoned building, 1320 N. 21st St., would even survive.
You can follow along via the many posts about the school and the $20 million effort to convert it to affordable housing with preference given to veterans and their families.
Quorum was the architect on the project.
According to Ted Matkom, general counsel for Oregon, Wisconsin-based Gorman & Co., which is the developer on the adaptive reuse project, the 39 units are almost entirely leased and about 25 percent of the first tenants are veterans.
Matkom says as non-veterans move out, preference will continue to be given to veterans for the units.
Residents of about 10 units are expected to move in on Friday.
To give you an idea of the cost, rents run about $350 a month for one-bedroom units for tenants earning 30 percent of the county median income, double that for people earning 60 percent and in between for those at 50 percent.
The project is overwhelmingly family focused, with mostly two- and three-bedroom units, and rents for those, of course, are higher.
Gorman is also still planning to build four single-family homes on the north end of the property, facing Vliet Street, but inflation has not helped speed that effort.
“When we started this they were going to cost around $200,000 each to build,” says Matkom, “now that’s up to $400,000.”
That kind of cost would lead to houses listed for sale at prices way above what the market could bear, so there is some figuring to be done before that work can begin.
In the meantime, the resurrection of the unique former public school building – which was long home to a private day care before a fire led to it being vacated – has seemed nearly miraculous.
After the fire, the building came into the city’s real estate portfolio and appeared doomed as nature and vandals took their toll. By the time the project began, bricks were literally popping out of the 21st Street side of the building.
Now, the masonry is repaired, there’s a new roof, it’s painted outside and flanked by a pair of new parking lots.
Inside, asbestos was remediated, woodwork repaired and on and on.
The first time I visited, before Gorman bought the building, I had to wear a special mask just to be allowed to enter.
But, amazingly, numerous details from the school days remain, including a few built-ins constructed by MPS’ carpentry department, beautiful hardwood floors, wainscoting, and door and window moldings.
The gym has been converted into two spaces for tenants to use, the stage maintained and the decorative brackets kept.
Thanks to the copious windows and a pair of interior light wells, every space is flooded with natural light, even in the lower level apartments.
There are in-unit washers and dryers and nicely outfitted kitchens, along with gloriously high ceilings and storage areas.
In the corridors are shelves with art pottery created by Lori Gramling and La Familia de Arte, which also supplied swarms of ceramic butterflies and stars to add a dash of color to the corridors and the former gym space.
Gramling and her team also framed veteran-themed photos and documents that also hang on public view in the corridors.
An elevator has been installed for accessibility.
Gorman, which has also redeveloped other former schools including 5th Street/Coggs and Peckham/Jackie Robinson, recently closed on the sale of the former North Milwaukee/Custer/Edison School and is beginning interior demolition and remediation work.
In addition to creating apartments in the 1920s building, the developer will build a row of townhouses along the south end of the property where 36th Street School, now razed, once stood.
According to Matkom, inflation has complicated these kinds of projects.
“We have 15 funding for sources for that one,” he tells me as we stand outside McKinley. “We had eight on this one and even that’s a lot. But 15!”
That project is slated for completion in summer 2024.
Some more images:
Attic
Lower level corridor
Ceramic service plaques
Stairwells
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 can be heard weekly on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories.
