Victoria and Philip Pistorius House

This Queen Anne style house was constructed in 1892 for Victoria and Philip Pistorius and their daughter, Edna, on the corner of N. 1^st and Wright Streets. Philip worked for many years as a salesman in wholesale groceries. By 1911, he was a director at the Roundy, Peckham & Dexter Company, wholesale grocers in Milwaukee. The Pistorius family sold in 1901 to Henry Mantz. Mantz was a Michigan lumberman who returned to his native Milwaukee to retire with his wife, Mary, and their nine children. Henry lived in this house longer than any other owner, dying at the age of 97.

The corner of N. 1st and Wright St. was the center of a neighborhood known as the German community’s Gold Coast, an affluent area for merchants and businessmen.  Edward Schuster, founder of Schuster’s Department Stores in Milwaukee, lived one block north. Across the intersection once stood the Millioki Club, a popular social club, now demolished.

In 1951, the last homeowner moved out, ushering in a period of landlords and renters. From 1951-2001, the interior was converted from a single family home into a 3- and later 4-unit property. The current owner has lived here since 2004 and has remodeled and transformed the interior back into a single family house.

Herman Schnetzky and Eugene Liebert, both German immigrants, were the architects of this house. The pair designed numerous churches and houses across Milwaukee but are best known as the architects of the Germania Building (1896) in downtown Milwaukee. The three-story turret, wood shingle siding, steeply pitched roof and second story porches are all easily identifiable features of the Queen Anne style, popular from 1880-1910. The overhanging eaves, monumental chimney and steeply pitched roof are other important design elements. In 1892, this house cost $4,500 to build.

Researched by Diane Wais