Back in 1876 the William Plankinton Mansion rose right here at 1529 W. Wisconsin Avenue. Built in 1876 by the millionaire meatpacking entrepreneur John Plankinton as a wedding gift when his son William Plankinton married Mary Ella Woods, this Victorian residence was designed by Edward Townsend Mix, the most prominent Milwaukee architect of that era. One of its striking external features was a lion's head set into its marble-faced construction.
Inside, visitors remembered ornate woodwork and a stairwell illuminated by a stained glass window. In 1918 the house was sold to Marquette University and for decades served as a hospital annex, a new chapter in its life. In 1969 the building was demolished to make way for new university structures.
Stand here and feel how Wisconsin Avenue itself changed around this house: originally Spring Street, after several mansions were built it became the city’s most prestigious residential area and in 1876 was renamed Grand Avenue. John Plankinton, known as “A Merchant Prince and Princely Merchant” for his philanthropy, owned property between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets on Grand Avenue. The mansion came down in 1969, but the address is the same one John Plankinton chose for his son's wedding gift in 1876.