[milwaukee-electric] Re: Memories of Milwaukee

[Larry Allan]

Sorry to be a bit late on this subject, but I wanted to check first before
posting. If you want to take a Elevator Ride into history, the Century
Building on the northeast corner of N. 3rd and Wells  St. still has the Man
Operated old elevators with  expanding gates and glass doors.
On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Don L. Leistikow <DLeistikow at webtv.net>wrote:

> jdl896 and list:   Great nostalic rememberances.
>
> I recall more of the Boston Store history as I am quite older than you.
> The Toy Department was on the 8th floor and that part of the 'Store' was
> nine floors high.  The 'Store' was comprised of three connected
> buildings.  The front store on Wisconsin was only six stories tall.
> There were two banks of elevators, one bank of four on the East wall and
> another four on the West wall.  These were the most elegant 'cars' and
> included the brass expanding protective gate.
>
>
> The central building had four elevators on the west wall only.  These
> 'cars' did not have the expanding gate for passenger protection and were
> simply open.  I beleve that these were ultimately removed, although the
> stairway remains.  This construction was nine stories high.
>
>
> The south building was also nine stories tall and had a bank of four
> elevators on the east wall, relatively central located.  These 'cars'
> did not have the expanding gate, either.
>
> To identify the three buildings, look at the west wall on 4th Street and
> notice the different window styles.
>
> The ninth floor was given over to the Candy Kitchen (they made their own
> Chocolates) where my Father's cousin worked.  The employee's cafeteria
> was also up there.  The freight elevators (three) were also on the east
> wall and were accessed for trucks on a L shaped alley, mid-block off
> Michigan Street.  The Boston Store's 'all electric home' was also
> located adjacent to the east wall on ground level.  Patrons could tour
> this house and see the new Interior Decorations and the latest electric
> appliances.  The 'house' was illuminated at night by a floodlight
> mounted on the roof of the Public Service Building's Third and Michigan
> corner.  Access to the home was only from the 'Store'.  Later, the home
> was torn down and a two level parking structure was built there.
>
> The L shaped Alley was also accessed from Third Street, next to the old
> legitimate Davidson Theater.  Many fine Broadway styled shows were
> staged there.
>
> I worked there for some seven years.  I started as a part-timer while in
> Wauwatosa High School, 1943-1946.  My first job was as a busboy in the
> sixth floor restaurant, a Saturday job during school days and a full
> time job during the summer.  Being on my feet all day wore them out and
> by five pm, my feet tingled.
>
>
> In 1944, I transfered into the Stock Department.  My first assignment
> was to maintain the supplies for the Men's  Furnishing department on the
> 8th floor.  This was before they moved the toy department up there.  The
> Department Manager would phone for more shirts or sweaters and I would
> pull same, tie the boxes with string and pitch them into a vertical
> circular chute which ran to the main floor.
>
> At five pm, we stockboys would commandeer an east wall elevator, clipup
> wall pads and then bring down major refill supplies to the mainfloor
> departments.  These supplies were loaded on four by six wheeled tables.
> The newer tables were made with metal frames and had a separate three
> sided expanded metal frame to secure the stock from falling off.  These
> frames were also of great necessity for applying tax stamps to
> cigarettes.  We would open the cases and then slit the carton bottoms
> open and folding them over.  Bottom side up, we then built up some three
> high levels.  Then the strips of tax stamps were applied by hand after
> wetting the gummed paper and sliding the stamps onto the packs of
> cigarettes.
>
> The older wheeled tables were all wood, painted a light green and had
> metal, roller skate type casters.  No sides were available here but then
> we were careful to not let any stock fall off.  The thrill of these was
> that the metal casters would create a loud noise as we double teamed all
> of the tables across the main floor marble material.  With a man on the
> front and back, we rushed these older tables to the department location
> with a resounding noise not unlike a siren that would cause patrons to
> part the aisles like the parting of the sea in Biblical History.
>
> Oh, the fun of it all.   Well, my boss asked me if I could come in
> during the week for an hour and one half, for this specific purpose.
> Coming in from Wauwatosa High School, was a daunting question.  I told
> him that I would check schedules.  I discovered that a Route 67 bus was
> scheduled at 3:30 pm exactly at the time the school bell rang.  There
> would be no way for me to rush from my German class in the old building
> (NW corner) go through the tunnel underneath 76th street, get up to my
> locker on the 3rd floor of the new building (NE corner) then, come down
> to catch this bus.
>
> The 'kicker' is that this bus made connection with an eastbound Local
> Rapid Transit car at 84th street.  The key was to get a pass to exit my
> class five minutes early.  I got this permanent pass from the school VP
> and wallah, I was in business.  The Local RTL car arrived downtown and I
> was able to do a brisk walk to the south elevators, get up to the 8th
> floor and punch the timeclock at just 4 pm.  That was in 1944 and you
> can't do that today.
>
> Living just south of Bluemound Road, the Local Rapid Transit service was
> prominent in our family transportation.  My Father lost his automobile
> during the Great Depression, and never bought another.  Our home was
> relatively in the center of the two legs of the Route 10 Wells~Downer
> streetcars which had the big 500 series cars in service.  So, early on,
> we rode Route 10 until we learned of the LRT service.  After that, we
> rode the 'Rapid' almost exclusively.
>
> As these were the War years, most of the public transit service was
> 'standing room only'.  The rear platforms of the 1100's were jammed as
> no one got off until reaching 68th street.  Duplexes and two car MU
> trains were common during the rush-hours.  Some services actually
> fielded three car trains, not common on the west side lines, though.  In
> this configuration, the single car usually held the headend with a
> trailing Duplex.  This was of necessity due to the restrictive length of
> the various platforms so, this arrangement was the shortest in
> comparison to coupling the single car as the rear unit.
>
> 'Nuff', for now....               Don
>
>
>