MILWAUKEE — There's a chance to own a bit of Milwaukee history. A mansion built in 1890 is on the market for a cool $4.9 million. It's called the Samuel Field Mansion.
This home blends both the beauty in the details and the grand scale of each room. There are ornate carvings on the ceilings, leaded glass windows, and iron-wrought fixtures on some of the doors. Among the many outstanding rooms is the rathskeller that evokes feelings of old world Europe. Samuel Field was a real estate investor and prospector in the late 1800s.
While the home is beautiful no doubt, it has had a lot of ups and downs in its 135 year history, from foreclosures to vacancies to large renovations.
About 40 years after the home was built in 1929, the home was set to be demolished to make way for Juneau Park’s expansion on the Lower East Side. Luckily, it was saved by Louis Kuehn, who appreciated the building’s beauty. He bought it for $85,000. However, he had a pretty big undertaking to save it.
In 1929, he took apart the home piece by piece. He labeled everything from the stones to the wood paneling. Then he transported it three miles north to its current location. He rebuilt the home and added a caretaker's residence and a four-car garage.
“When Louis Kuehn bought the structure from the city, he had 3 months to move the whole thing," Ellen Purtell, with Keller Williams Realty and one of the realtors for the property, said.
This home is not meant for just anybody or any family. It will take a buyer who is a preservationist at heart. They've got to love architecture and art. For those wishing to live in an ultra-modern home, they should look elsewhere. The good thing for whoever does buy the Samuel Field Mansion, all the hardwork of restoring the property has already been done.
“Millions of dollars. This house took millions of dollars to redo, and that’s the cosmetic portion of it," Desty Lorino, with Keller Williams Realty and one of the property's realtors, said.
While the home is beautiful, it wasn't always kept in the best of shape. The home was foreclosed on twice. It even sat vacant for about 10 years. In 2014, the current owners bought the home in fear that it would be destroyed. They got the home for about $1.2 million.
“No expense spared to restore this to museum quality and original quality, and the finishes are impeccable," Purtell said.
The home has 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, 3 half baths, a wine cellar, sits on roughly 3.5 acres on two city lots, and has steps leading down to more than 300 feet of private shoreline.
“So this is a modern home that actually looks just like it was back in the 1800s," Lorino said.
Watch the story to see more of the Samuel Field Mansion...
All the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems were updated during the recent renovation overhaul.
The realtors said this home is likely meant for a slightly older family. It could be a couple or people who will be throwing mixers and fundraising parties.
More information can be found here.
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