GROUND BROKEN FOR ST. JOHN'S ON THE LAKE TOWER

 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON EXPANSION OF ST. JOHN'S ON LAKE

AT SITE OF FORMER LEGION POST / CIVIL WAR CAMP

 "Milwaukee's Most Expensive Parking Lot" Is No More

As Elderly Episcopalians Return to Land of Ancestors

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com 

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team -- AARP Brigade

With most of its 88 units spoken for, or "reserved by depositors," as management calls it, ground was broken Thursday, October 15th, 2009 for construction of a 21 story south tower for St. John's on the Lake, 1840 N. Prospect Ave. 
The event was the culmination of years of planning, with about the same amount of time spent navigating the shoals of a world in which construction financing had dried up. Fortunately the folks at Ziegler Wealth Management (old friends, actually) worked out the details, and as of this afternoon, the shovels are in the ground on the site of the Civil War-era Camp Reno [nee Holton.], located on the bluffs high above the Milwaukee Yacht Club on the city's East Side. [See Milwaukeeworld post about the financing here.]
About 200 folks, mostly residents and depositors, gathered in a tent under rainy skies for a 10 a.m. ceremony emceed by Kathie Eilers, president of the home.

AN INVOCATION BY THE EPISCOPAL BISHOP

Eilers introduced the Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, who did some Invoking to get the ceremony underway. He traveled from his headquarters at All Saints Cathedral, which, when occupied in 1873, was the denomination's first American cathedral.
However, the crowd at the event wasn't really the "High Church" set, and was more readily identified with the family names etched into the Tiffany windows of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the "Rich Church," and owner of Forest Home Cemetery, the only south side address many of the attendees will ever know, and where you'll be able to find them once they check out of St. John's.

"REFLECTIVE COMMENTS" FROM A FORMER BOARD CHAIR

Things started moving along when John D. (Jack) Bryson got up to share, briefly, his "Reflective Comments."
Bryson had served as Board President of St. John's from 1977 to 1979 and was chair of the committee that built the current 10 story tower north of the development site being groundbroken today.
He recollected "jockeying" with Ziegler back then, but admitted his finance team was not nearly creative as the folks nowadays.
Back when he was on the board, Bryson said, the St. John's facility on N. Cass St., (just north of the cathedral) was growing cramped and aged. The board located some lakefront property on N. Prospect Ave., demolished an apartment building, constructed the current facility, and -- presciently -- got an option to purchase the Alonzo Cudworth American Legion Post 23 immediately to the south. The post's membership peaked at 6,000 after World War II, but declined as the years went by. Finally, in 1994, St. John's exercised its purchase option, and "the most expensive parking lot in Milwaukee was created," Bryson said.
He also recalled a St. John's resident who wanted to be the first to contribute to the fund to build the new tower. She, then aged 103, called Bryson to her apartment and provided him with a $15,000 check prepared by her lawyer son. "But that's not the check I wanted to give you," she told Bryson. "Go down to Chicago and get the rest from my lawyer son."
Bryson said his trip to the Windy City netted an additional $10,000 from the son ("My mom! Isn't she something!") and the fundraising was on its way. 
VJS Construction Sevices, Pewaukee, is the contractor for the $70 million project.

THE MAYOR SPEAKS

Mayor Tom Barrett, his right hand in a cast since an incident during State Fair, and in no condition to run for Governor (since he can't shake hands) gave his old joke about the abuse he took from a  political opponent who complained all Barrett wanted to do was "to go to groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings."
Well, heck, yes! Barrett exulted, since groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings bookend the construction projects that are a community's lifeblood. (Many of the assembled elderly were still employed as captains of industry when Barrett first cracked that old chestnut.)


MAYOR'S DAUGHTER UNTROUBLED BY HIS SCARS

Mayor Barrett also addressed his impending old age, which might well have been eliminated back in West Allis last August when he was attacked by a man identified as Anthony J. Peters.
Barrett said he had been putting salve on a facial scar contracted in the melee when his 10 year old daughter asked him what he was doing. He explained, and she asked if the scar would go away. Barrett said he didn't know.
"That's okay, daddy," she said, "the scar looks just like all the other wrinkles on your face."

MIMOSAS AND POMOSAS AT RECEPTION

After the groundbreaking, featuring five golden shovels and one silver, ergonomic shovel, the attendees, including Marianne Epstein, Penny Egan and Marion Chester Read walked and wheeled back to the warm, dry confines of the home for a light snack, entertainment and refreshments. Beverages included Mimosas (Orange Juice and Champagne) and Anti-Oxidental Pomosas, which use Pomegranate juice. [Get 'em liquored up early and they're practically no problem at all come nap time.]
Olive "Cissy" Van Dyke Bryson, wife of  Jack, told a cousin that she and her husband plan to move to the top floor of the new building when it is completed in 2011.
This will be quite a move, since she's lived in what had been her childhood home in Fox Point for the past 40 years.
I said it beats moving to Newcastle Place in Mequon, which I consider nothing more than a mausoleum in a cornfield. Watch out Prospect Avenue -- the Van Dykes are coming back to reclaim their turf, nearly a century and a half after young George Douglass Van Dyke, son of Bryson's ancestor John H. Van Dyke, would march to Camp Reno as a drummer boy from his lakefront home down the street.

--Michael Horne