The original building was built for the Berger Bedding Company in 1907. The position of the railroad offered accessible shipping services. The hotel part was the factory, and the warehouse is now the restaurant Smyth. The bedding company only was in the building for 20 years when, in 1927, the building was bought for the Molitor Box Company. In 1955 it became cold storage until a development group bought the building at a really cheap price, because the area was not developed and the building was falling apart.
When designing the hotel they wanted to use as much of the old building as possible. The Hemlock and heart Pine posts and beams, exposed Cream City brick walls and fire doors are still very much intact. The building was one of the last factory’s to have a wood structure frame in Milwaukee. They stopped building with wood because of safety reasons.
The photo is of a table at the restaurant Smyth. I am using the photo for three reasons:
1. It is the only photo that I could that turned out OK.
2. I like the whole arrangement of the restaurant and the look of the type of table they picked out.
3. I do not know what it is made out of, (forgot to ask), but the half wall surrounding the table is very interesting with a cool texture look to it.
Overall the hotel does a great job of reusing parts from when the building was a factory. It ties everything together very well. I may have missed it, but I think having photos of the warehouse back in the day hanging up would bring everything home.
Photo I took on the way to the hotel.
Interesting choice and nice support for your image. I think that some of the collections of items within the lobby are attempts to make aesthetic collages to catch the eye as yours does.
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