The Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy Historic District is the building complex of an agriculture school started in 1912 in

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Wauwatos ...

, when farming was a big part of Milwaukee County's economy. In 1998 the complex was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. With

History

The district was a high school campus from 1912 to 1928, aiming to train young farmers, rather than have them quit school after 6th grade. It was the third such agriculture-focused high school in the state, following similar schools in Dunn and Marathon counties, and it was probably the largest.

Alexander C. Eschweiler Alexander Chadbourne Eschweiler (August 10, 1865 – June 12, 1940) was an American architect with a practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He designed both residences and commercial structures. His eye-catching Japonism, Japonist pagoda design for f ...

designed its buildings. There are five buildings, all with walls of red brick: * The 1911 University building is 1.5 stories, Tudor Revival style, with

bargeboards Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

. * The 1911 Class Building is 1.5 stories, in

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style, decorated with bargeboards. * The 1911 Administration building is 2.5 stories,

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

style. * The 1911 Dairy Building is 2.5 stories, with

bay windows A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

and exposed rafter tails. * The 1911 Horticulture building was 1.5 stories, in a mix of

and Tudor Revival styles. It was demolished in 1995.

References

{{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Public high schools in Wisconsin Schools in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin