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231 E. Buffalo St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene
The Third Ward Fire of October 28, 1892, destroyed 16 densely packed blocks, destroyed 440 buildings, forced the evacuation of nearly 2,000 residents, and killed five people. To say that the blaze turned the city’s commercial center into a ghost town would be an understatement, as very few of the supposedly haunted buildings remained.
On the bright side, this devastation made the job of cartographers at the Sanborn-Perris Map Company of New York much easier as they surveyed the city to produce the 1894 edition of Milwaukee’s insurance map.
Volume 1, Sheet 004 of the atlas shows Block 36 of the original plat of the City of Milwaukee, which was incorporated into the Wisconsin Territory in 1846. The plat is bounded by Buffalo Street (north), Chicago Street (south), Water Street (west), and Broadway (east) and was long divided into 20 lots, some of which were quite large, covering a quarter acre. However, the cartographer discovered that only two buildings remain here. One on Water Street apparently survived the Great Fire. The other, “fitted with sprinklers on every floor,” was a newly built building for the National Distilling Company on Buffalo Street, Lot 19.
As the city’s architects flourished, many other buildings were built in a short space of time. Fred Vogel, Jr. of the Pfister & Vogel Tanning Company, which had lost two buildings in a fire, received permission in 1895 to build a five-story building, 150 feet deep and 50 feet wide, on lot 20 at 85-87-89 Buffalo Street (now 231 E. Buffalo Street). Located just east of the distillery building, the building was designed by Carl F. Ringer as an investment property for the Vogels. Pfister & Vogel never occupied it, but the leather feel remained, as the entire 45,000 square foot building was leased to Beals & Torrey Co., wholesalers of rubber and leather footwear and manufacturers of BP shoes. The company left soon after their 1920 merger, and the building was leased to the Patek Brothers, manufacturers of paints, oils, and glass. Shortly after Vogel’s death in 1936 at age 85, the Patek brothers purchased the building for $22,200 and used it as a warehouse for the next several decades.
Research on changes in values
Milwaukee 1894, Volume 1, Sheet 004 – Digital Sanborn Maps of Milwaukee, 1894 and 1910, UWM Libraries Digital Collections.
In 1949, 12 years after the Patek brothers purchased it, the building was valued at $28,000 and remained at that level until 1952. The following year it was valued at $51,000, and by 1959 that figure had increased to $56,700.
Then decline came as manufacturers became less reliant on shipping and rail transport, the backbone of the area and source of its early prosperity. The development of the highway system gave the Third Ward access to more open land than ever before, creating an environment ripe for modern industrial facilities, but the Third Ward found itself empty. Once again the buildings were mere shells, but this time they weren’t burnt, there was a roof above them, and there was a glimmer of hope that they might one day be reborn.
The change in the assessed value of the Fred Vogel Jr. Building illustrates that transition.
In 1960, it was valued at $48,730. By 1963, it had fallen to $34,980, and the following year to $29,260. Thirty years later, in September 1993, a partnership organized by artist Tom Queoff purchased the building for $180,000, a price just above the rate of inflation at the time. Queoff immediately got to work repurposing the building into a multi-purpose space for people like himself.
Milwaukee 1894, Volume 1, Sheet 004 – Digital Sanborn Maps of Milwaukee, 1894 and 1910 – UWM Libraries Digital Collections
Queoff is a versatile sculptor who creates sculptures in a variety of materials, from steel to snow. He creates many one-of-a-kind pieces (his ice sculptures are a good example) and limited edition pieces. Perhaps his largest piece is the Wolski’s Milwaukee Bottle Opener, an 8.6-ounce brass opener that has sold tens of thousands over the last 40 years. It can be purchased for $40 on Wolski’s website, and is said to be the same opener used in the 116-year-old tavern. But with the rise of canned beer, could it go the same way as the spittoon, a bar staple from the past?
The building today
The Fred Vogel Jr. Building is one of 70 structures in the historic Third Ward neighborhood and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. New construction and renovations, such as adding a rooftop deck, must be approved by the neighborhood’s Architectural Review Board. Now known as the Buffalo Building, its facade features a stylized bronze statue of a bull (Bison) head by Queoff.
Queoff began renovating the buildings, much of it by himself or with friends, but at the time, vestiges of the area’s industrial past still remained: A produce wholesaler opened at 4 a.m. on Broadway’s Commission Row, and in the upper-floor sweatshop of the Renaissance Building (300 N. Water St.), thread-winding machines sewed clothes on, visible from the street overhead.
The reuse of the Fred Vogel Jr. Building was one of many similar projects that transformed the Third Ward, abandoned twice in a matter of decades, into one of Milwaukee’s most vibrant and valued neighborhoods. Today, the neighborhood is home to 25,000 residents, ten times its population at the time of the fire and tens of thousands more than in the late 20th century.
In 1997, four years after purchasing the building, Queoff challenged its $830,000 appraisal, arguing that the building was “occupied by artists, not bankers.” The city prevailed, and the appraisal was upheld.
Queoff remains the owner of the building, which is now valued at $2.8 million.
Currently, about 8,000 square feet of space is available, housing Wizard Works Brewing, Muscle Alchemy, Somatic Arts Massage and the landlord himself. Annual rent is $20 per square foot for the upper floors and $25 for the 3,445-square-foot space on the first floor of the 45,000-square-foot building.
Who is Fred Vogel Jr.?
To answer that question, let’s start with Frederick Vogel Sr. [1923-1892]Born Johann Friedrich Vogel, he and his fellow countryman Guido Pfister [1818-1889]The two men came to America from families of tanners in their early twenties from Hechingen and Kirchheim, Württemberg, Germany, and after working for several years in a tannery in Buffalo, owned by Vogel’s cousin, they left for Milwaukee in 1847. [pop. 12,000] And they soon opened up shop: Pfister used his own savings of $500 and a $5,000 line of credit to open a leather goods store in the Third Ward, where he handled the business side and Vogel, of Walker’s Point, was the tanner.
In June 1848, the month after Wisconsin became a state, they founded the Pfister & Vogel Tanning Company, processing 40 hides a day. According to the company’s centennial history, by World War I:
The company grew to become the largest tannery in the world, with 2,400 full-time employees producing a total of 31,200 soaks of various kinds of raw materials every day.
Pfister’s daughter marries Vogel’s son
Pfister and Vogel’s close relationship became a family one when Fred Vogel Jr. was married on April 23, 1889. [1851-1936] Married Louise Pfister [1857-1948]Adopted daughter of Guido Pfister. Her brother Charles Pfister [1859-1927] She never married, and the family’s vast fortune passed down to her five children. Charles lived with Fred’s family in a large house at 429 Jefferson Street, just north of where he had built the Pfister Hotel. The hotel tower now stands on the site of the house.
Charles continued the Pfister tradition of financial management and control of the family’s vast land holdings, which included nearly everything from Downer Avenue east to the lake and from Hartford Avenue south to Beverly Avenue in Shorewood, including the UWM campus, which had been assembled in parcels donated by the Pfister brothers over the years.
While Pfister expanded his holdings to include the Milwaukee Sentinel, Fred Vogel Jr. continued to operate the tannery and built the building. Among other things, he was founder and president of First National Bank and developer of the building that still stands at 735 N. Water St. He served as a director of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company for 45 years, retiring in 1935 as the company’s longest serving director.
Surprising discovery
Fred Vogel III and Doug Tabor. Photo by Michael Horn.
This spring, Fred Vogel III [b. 1935] He asked me to research his family history to fill in some gaps in the “Vogel Family Papers 1855-2022” housed at the Milwaukee Public Library, and to answer some questions that had been bothering him since his youth. I replied that I would include the Fred Vogel Jr. building in my research.
He had never heard of the structure.
By chance, while dining at Crave in Mekwan, I met a man named Doug Taber, who had worked at the Pfister & Vogel facility at 1531 N. Water St. when it closed in February 2000. At the time, he was technical manager of wet end operations, a job title I will inevitably give to a major character in a novel I may someday write.
I told him about my research project, and he told me that when it was decided to demolish the building, he had been allowed to salvage items from the office and garden. Among other things, he grabbed a bag of bricks and hurled it over the fence and into the face of a friend who was helping him. Less dramatically was the salvage of a book called “Principles of Leather Manufacturing” by H.R. Procter, FIC, FCS, published in London in 1902.
On the cover, in beautiful letters, was the following:
Fred Vogel Jr.
583 Cass Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
That address (now 1119 North Cass Street) was the address of a $57,000 home built in 1893, where Charles Pfister, his family and his brother-in-law lived. But the book remained in his office at the factory for decades after his death, not in the library of the now-demolished mansion.
On May 28, Taber and I met with Fred Vogel III, who was given the book. Taber said he was happy the book was in the rightful hands, and Vogel said there are few personal items like this in the family archives, so this will be a welcome addition.
Senior, Junior, and two more generations to reach III
As you might guess from the name, Fred Vogel Jr. is not the father of Fred Vogel III. He is his great grandfather. Fred Vogel had a son named Fred A. Vogel. [1880-1928]But the family was in no rush to add a Roman numeral to Fred’s name. Fred Vogel Jr.’s eldest son, Guido Charles Vogel, [1877-1913] That family eventually took on the name. Guido’s only child, William Dickerman Vogel [1908-1980] He was the father of Fred Vogel III.
overview:
Property Name: Fred Vogel, Jr. Building Address: 231 E Buffalo St., Milwaukee Assessment Value: 9,000 sq ft of land at $270,000 ($30.00/sq ft) and 45,000 sq ft of improvements at $2,530,000 for a total assessed value of $2,800,000 Taxes: 2023 tax due $73,808.26. Paid in installments. Includes assessed value of $4,131.29 for Bid #02 Owner: 231 East Buffalo LLC. Registered on: 12/29/2011. Delinquent Declaration 07/01/2024 Thomas J. Queoff, Registered Agent Type: Multi-Story Warehouse Architect: Carl F. Ringer Style: Commercial Regional Style Neighborhood: Historic Ward 3. Contributing Structure to Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Subdivision: Original Subdivision City of Milwaukee Block 36, Lot 20 Aldermanic District: Ward 4, Robert Baumann Walking Score: 97 out of 100 “Walker’s Paradise” MKE Average: 62 Transportation Score: 72 out of 100 “Excellent Transportation” MKE Average: 49 Biking Score: 82 out of 100 “Very Bikeable” MKE Average: 58
What’s Milwaukee like? Just 0.6 miles south of City Hall
