No matter how much or how little you know about Milwaukee, we hope you’ll learn something new here with a Milwaukee Trivia series from First Weber’s North Shore Office, written by Dana Witkowski.
Finishing up on our 6th week of Milwaukee Trivia, the North Shore Office has truly shown their knowledge of Milwaukee’s history. With only 2 weeks left in the office contest it’s a close race to the finish. Let’s see how you do with this week’s question…
What is the oldest structure in Milwaukee?
St. Joan of Arc Chapel
Although Milwaukee is not the original home of the Chapel, it is the oldest medieval structure in the city and is noted by the University Committee on the Fine Arts Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts as the only medieval structure in the entire Western Hemisphere dedicated to its original purpose: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the greater glory of God.) It has been dated as far back as five centuries old and has a tomb within of Chevalier de Sautereau, a former Chatelain of Chasse, dated 1473-1524.
Sometime in the 1920’s, architect and archeologist Jacques Couelle stumbled across the small chapel in the French village of Chasse. Dilapidated and in ruins, Couelle made meticulously careful architectural drawings and took numerous photographs of the Chapel. In 1926 it was Gertrude Hill Gavin, daughter of an American railway magnate, who acquired the Chapel with the archeologist’s help and had it transferred piece by piece to her fifty acres in New York.
Shortly after the sale of Gertrude Gavin’s estate to Mr. and Mrs. Marc Rotjam in 1962, the Chapel miraculously withstood a fire that gutted the entire chateau it was attached to. By 1964, the Rotjam’s presented the Chapel to Marquette and had it dismantled and sent to the campus for reconstruction on the Marquette University campus.
On May 26, 1966 the chapel was dedicated to St. Joan of Arc.
Click for more information
Article provided by
Dana Witkowski in our North Shore office
Do you know what the oldest stucture is in YOUR town? If so, please share.
Thank you for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate blog for a little bit of Milwaukee history.