When, in 2015, Jesse and Barkha Limbu Daily, the owners of The Cheel, 105 S. Main St. in Thiensville, restored the long-missing top of the turret on their 1890 building, it seemed like a celebration of a vintage building being restored for the future.
Alas, that future turned out to be short lived as the building was destroyed by fire in November.
And now, the Dailys face a second day of heartbreak as the building is slated to be demolished on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
“The Commercial House and Hotel – now known as the cheel will go down in history. Over 130 years of memories were made here," the Dailys wrote in a Facebook post.
"We welcome you to come see the demolition scheduled to start around 8:30am (starting with the steeple). This will be a sad day for our Village, but we look forward to the next phase in our lives and cannot wait to share with you the plans for the rebuild."
As you can see, the owners plan to rebuild on the site. Still, our hearts break at the loss of this stunning historic structure.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, "This structure was built by Nic Wilson, who also ran the grain elevator that was located immediately to the west and along the railroad line. Opening of the bar took place on Nov. 16 and 17 of 1895. Alvin Riemer purchased the hotel/bar and ran it for a time before selling to William Heusler. The structure functioned as a tavern into the 1970s; thereafter it has served as a restaurant."
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 has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
