GERMAINA BUILDING

135 West Wells Street

Architect: Schnetzky and Liebert 1896

The Germania Building is a eight-story steel frame structure with the lower two floors clad in stone and the upper six in pressed brick. The marble on the interior is from Tennessee. The style of the building is a mix of Beaux-Arts classicism and Germanic elements, such as the central pavilion, the mixing of orders, the variation of window treatments, and the domes on the corners of the northern facade. The building was constructed as the headquarters of the Germania Publishing Company, the largest publisher of German-language newspapers in the United States at the end of the 19th century.

Wauwatosa Limestone lower stories rest on a pinkish-gray granite foundation wall. The upper walls are pressed brick and terra cotta. Along with the Pfister Hotel, the Germania Building is one of the last Milwaukee buildings to use the local Wauwatosa limestone.