Historic Shorewood Fountain Rescued From Lake Drive Demolition

SHOREWOOD, WI — A historic Art Deco fountain that once resided at former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's Shorewood mansion has found a new home at Shorewood Village Hall.

The fountain once lived at the 3534 Lake Drive Eschweiler mansion, which was built in 1927 and torn down in 2019. Abele has since sold the land, and the lot is now empty. But the fountain and its re-created tile work will live on after it was installed to its new spot around mid-April.

The fountain was saved after Ben Tyjeski, a Milwaukee-based ceramicist and historian, saw photos of it before the planned demolition. Tyjeski told Patch he sent a postcard to the home, asking for the tile work to be spared. A few months later, he heard back that the fountain was saved, and being donated to the Shorewood Historical Society.

The historic tile work that once accompanied the fountain when it resided on the estate's carriage house, however, was not saved. It was the tile that initially caught Tyjeski's attention.

"When we found out that there was no tile saved, I thought, well, this, this isn't something that's, you know, super difficult to do. So this looked like a challenge that I could take on," Tyjeski said.

So Tyjeski worked with the Historical Society over the course of a few years to re-create the tiling, which can now be seen behind the fountain on the northern exterior wall of Village Hall, 3930 Murray Avenue.

It's placed right outside the Shorewood Historical Society archives.

"It's kind of a bittersweet thing, actually, you know. We felt bad about the house coming down. But, so, we're glad to have at least a little piece of that. And we can continue to tell the story of that particular piece of property by featuring the fountain," said Karen de Hartog from the Shorewood Historical Society.

The recovered fountain and re-created tile work seen at Shorewood Village Hall.

The fountain went untouched for a while after its recovery. It sat in the basement of Shorewood Village Hall for at least a year until its recent installation, Hartog said.

The Historical Society will eventually add a sign near the installation describing its history and acknowledging that it was donated by the Abele family, according to Hartog.

A Symbol Of Shorewood's Built Environment

The re-created tile work is an homage to the Continental Faience and Tile Co., a South Milwaukee business that was active from 1924-1943. Tyjeski focuses on ceramics from the 1920s and 1930s, and it was that tile work that especially spoke to him, Tyjeski told Patch.

His history as a ceramicist goes back over a decade. He became acquainted with Shorewood's many ceramic works in architecture when he was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and he is currently working on a book about the Continental Faience and Tile Co.

You can find other examples of similar tile work in apartments and homes across the village, according to the Shorewood Historical Society.

"You'll find it in a lot of our apartment buildings that were built in the '30s in particular," Hartog said.

"There's quite a bit of it at the high school. And then lots of small houses built in the '20s and '30s often used a little bit of tile, sometimes, and a little design above the front door or by a fireplace or whatever. It was an easy way to add a little bit of color and artwork to, you know, an otherwise really simple dwelling," she explained. "There's lots and lots, just look up as you're walking through the village, you'll see a lot."

Re-Creating The Historic Tiles

Tyjeski created each of the tiles by hand. A combination of larger unglazed and smaller glazed tiles make up the background of the fountain.

The bulk of the tile is unglazed. The original pieces of terracotta were different shades of brown and orange, while a border of colorfully glazed tiles surrounds the simpler tiles.

The fountain is located in between the North Shore Fire Department and Village Hall.

Tyjeski said he used clay that was sympathetic to what was originally used, and fired them at slightly different temperatures. For the smaller, more colorful tiles, he used a glaze.

He mounted the fountain to his re-created tile with the help of Eric Anderson and others from the Shorewood Department of Public Works.

"I'm just happy to share my skills with people who just care so much about their place," Tyjeski said, "and then they're so involved, and I feel very fortunate to have their enthusiasm."