Happy Birthday Amy
2839 So. Logan Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
This craftsman bungalow at 2839 So. Logan Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is described in the 2010 Assessor Property Records as being: 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,140 sq. ft. and built in 1920. That is part of the story.
The house was the family home of Suzanne (Frank) Wilson and her brother Mark Frank as children. Her mother, Hazel(Juergenmeyer) Frank, a graduate of Columbia Nursing School, and father, Orville Frank, a mechanical engineer, had lived next door to the left as newlyweds in 1934. They moved into 2839 in 1938 the year Suzanne was born and lived there until their deaths in 1966 and 1967 respectively.
The photograph of the house was taken in the year 2006. Only the color of the shakes on the front dormer, the front door, and the steps had been changed. When Suzanne was a child all of these were green. The California pillars on sandstone blocks framing the front porch, the decorative slats of the railing, and the narrow rectangular windows on either side of the front door (although they each originally had two squares of green glass at the top and bottom) were the same. The house had always been painted white.
The original floor plan of the first floor was a square entry hall and a living room in the front, a dining room and kitchen in the back. Between the living room and dining room were bookcases facing the living room with small wood California pillars in a arched cut out on top. On the dining room side were tall narrow wood doored cupboards. In the dining room there was also a built in buffet with drawers, glass doored cupboards and a mirror. Simple green glass tulips decorated the piano window in the living room and the two windows above the buffet in the dining room. A doored hall connected the entry hall and the kitchen and included a door to the basement stairs and an open stairway to the upstairs. There had originally been a pantry off the kitchen with a milk chute to the outside. However, to accommodate the family it was converted to a bathroom, toilet only, but still had the milk chute.
Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a bathroom, all connected by a hall. Outside the small back bedroom (originally a sewing room) was a small porch. Attic space was under the eaves of the house off the front and back bedrooms and off the landing going up to the second floor. (A 12 inch high brass urn with cloisonne trim was found in one of these attics by Hazel and Orville when they moved in and now sits in Suzanne's living room.) In the basement was a fruit cellar next to the stairs, a coal bin diagonally across the open space, and in the adjacent corner twin stationary tubs for washing. It was in this corner with the stationary tubs and washing machine that Orville Frank set up his photography dark room. It included an enlarger that he made from old camera parts.
The backyard held the clothes posts, a large garden of rose bushes and tuberous begonias, later a patio, and a two car garage with windows looking out to the garden and side opening doors to the alley.
The 2800 block of Logan Avenue is centrally located in the area of Milwaukee called Bay View. It is a block of bungalows and two storey two family flats. A block away from the house at 2839 Logan Avenue are: Humbolt Park, Bay View High School, and the shopping area of Kinnickinnic Avenue.
Photo: Taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2006 by SW.
Note: Amy Wilson is the daughter of Suzanne Wilson and granddaughter of Hazel and Orville Frank. She vividly remembers this house that she visited as a small child.
