It’s not every day that a home designed by Milwaukee landmark architect Alexander C. Eschweiler hits the market, especially one along the lakefront that looks like a fairy tale castle.
But that’s the case right now as the 1912 French Revival house at 3266 N. Lake Dr. that Eschweiler designed for Western Lime and Cement Co. President Orrin W. Robertson has been listed for $4.2 million.
Of course you’ve got to be able to handle the estimated $25,416 monthly payment to even think about making an offer on this one.
Eschweiler left his mark all over the city, designing mansions like the Cowdery Mansion and the Charles Allis House (now a museum) to institutions like buildings at what is now UWM, including the Greene Museum, and schools to landmarks like the Milwaukee Gas Light building with its famous flame (added later) to workaday places like the striking pagoda gas stations for Wadhams and a number of telephone exchange buildings (and a headquarters) for Wisconsin Telephone.
Robertson was born in New York state and arrived in Milwaukee in 1880 after having relocated with his parents to Kenosha, where he graduated from high school. Studying telegraphy, he landed a job in Minneapolis, where it is believed that he received the first-ever Associated Press dispatch to be published in that city.
In 1874, he married Harriett T. Holton, daughter of well-known Milwaukee banker and active abolitionist Edward B. Holton (of Holton Street fame).
The design for the Lake Drive home was inspired by a trip that Robertson and his wife Harriett took to Europe. Harriett was apparently charmed by Château d'Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley that she wanted one of her own right here in the Cream City for her family, which included four daughters.
They lived there for eight years before building a new Mediterranean-style house up the street at 5400 N. Lake Dr. in Whitefish Bay. That one, also designed by Eschweiler, was inspired by a trip to Italy.
Replacing the Robertsons in the chateau was the family of Walter S. Lindsay in the 1920s and then for many years, until 1963, Mr. and Mrs. David B. Eisendrath called it home. It was then sold to the The Religious of the Cenacle order of Catholic nuns (aka the Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle) which already owned the English Revival-style Henry M. Thompson House next door at 3288 (which was also designed by Eschweiler and built in 1913).
The converted the chateau into a convent and connected the two homes with a cloister. In 1973 they sold the whole thing to the Episcopal Community of St. Mary, who then sold the chateau to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who ran St. Mary’s Hospital.
The nuns used the music room, with its vaulted ceiling, as a chapel.
In 1981, it was purchased by Mary and Dennis Bersch, who moved in with their four sons and set to work bringing it back to life, including clearing the overgrown property of brush and dead trees.
The house has had other owners since then.
It has 16 rooms, including seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and a half-bathroom, in its 9,154 square feet on a 1.35-acre lot. There’s a butler’s pantry, four fireplaces, two garages and a coach house. It also has lake views.
The listing says the house has had $1.6 million in renovations.
You can see the complete listing here with many more photos.
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. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
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 has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
