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George Mann Niedecken

Saturday May 17, 2008 9AM-5PM

Tour · Lectures · George Mann Niedecken · Raffle · Advance Ticket Information · Day-of Ticket Information

Dear Tourgoers,

In the Fall of 2000 Historic Milwaukee organized an architectural tour entitled, Prairie Influences: George Mann Niedecken & the Prairie Style in Milwaukee, which focused on Prairie Style homes on the East Side and included two houses with well-documented Niedecken interior work. We were pretty proud of that tour (and we still are!). But when planning started for the 2008 Spaces & Traces tour, who would have thought that we would identify one house with a tie to George Mann Niedecken—much less four homes! The first “find” for this tour—the Frank Schaaf Residence—was identified in January; the second in March; while the remaining two, were uncovered the second week of April 2008. This great discovery could not have been made if it were not for the “perfectly timed” exhibition, A Revolutionary in Milwaukee: The Designs of George Mann Niedecken, which opened at the Milwaukee Art Museum on April 17th, 2008 (and runs through July 20th). Coincidentally, I serve on the Board of Directors for the American Heritage Society (AHS), a support group of the MAM. Our board, which also includes the Pabst Mansion historian and Niedecken exhibition curator Mr. John C. Eastberg, was involved with some of the exhibition’s promotion, as well as the restoration of some of the pieces on view in the exhibition. Hence, I had an “in” with the museum staff to get information from what has now been renamed the George Mann Niedecken Archive (at the MAM). It was from this archive that I was able to review the drawings for the four Niedecken-related homes, and was ultimately able to get photos of those drawings so that we could have them on display in the appropriate homes for our Spaces & Traces tour. And for that, Historic Milwaukee sincerely thanks the Niedecken Archive archivist Mr. Tim Ladwig, for the photography of the drawings and Ms. Liz Flaig, MAM Curatorial Department Administrator and AHS staff liaison, for putting up with my ceaseless e-mails and questions.

Thanks and enjoy the tour!
Traci E. Schnell, Research Committee

Every tourgoer will receive a souvenir booklet which will include biographical information on George Mann Niedecken as a reprint of the article in our booklet for Prairie Influences: George Mann Niedecken & the Prairie Style in Milwaukee. (October 2000)