An Architectural Peek

An Architectural Peek at the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee 

by Harold N. Ahlgren[1]

Although members of Milwaukee's First Unitarian Society may have often heard their main church building referred to as an "architectural gem," not many of us are familiar with the particular aspects of its architecture and con­struction.  An art historian as well as an architect would be needed to fur­nish all the details, but let this brief description of the church from a non-professional viewpoint suffice, hoping that it may help in providing a better understanding and appreciation of its architectural features.

For their motif, the architects, George B. Ferry, a member of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee,  and his partner Alfred C. Clas, went back to the English Gothic style of the Perpendicular period, dating from about 1350 to 1550.  This period corresponds roughly to the time of the Tudors, from Richard II to Henry VIII.    It marks the last period before English architecture was to give way to the influence of French and Italian art of the Renaissance.  It also marks a period when English architecture had been freed from the austerity of monastic life and had taken on a more human aspect.  A contributing factor was the rise of the merchant class, with a correspondingly greater accent on practi­cality and common sense.

The medieval English parish church, whether humble or magnificent, was of course set in more ample and commodious surroundings (the graveyard was adja­cent) than could be attained locally, so some modifications necessarily had to be made in the design in order to adapt the building to the limitations of a city lot, the materials available, and the comfort of the congregation.   But the principal characteristics of the Perpendicular period (plus some carried over from the preceding period, called the Decorated) are admirably shown in the church's design and construction.

Chief among these characteristics are the hammer-beam construction of the roof of the sanctuary (nave) and use of the four-centered or Tudor arch, a flexible form more adaptable to a variety of openings than the more sharply pointed arches, though these latter continue to be used and are probably the most familiar aspect of all Gothic architecture.  Another characteristic of the period is the emphasis on the vertical line, which accounts for the period's designation as "perpendicular." But verticality is not exactly synonymous with great height, and the vertical line, in con­trast to the flowing line of the preceding period, is so subtly used in the church's design as to go almost unnoticed.

Buff Bedford (Indiana) limestone, now mellowed by time and urban grime to a venerable gray, was used for the exterior of the building.  Carrying out a principle from earliest medieval times, the church is "rein­forced" at all outside corners (quoins) and at intervals along the sidewalls by buttresses, some of which merge with the building wall and all of which are down-to-earth adjuncts, unornamented, but beveled off (chamfered) at terminations.

The arch is everywhere present.  From Astor Street, the visitor gains the shelter of the porch through one of two identical archways which are complemented on either side by similarly arched windows in the vesti­bules.  The porch became a popular feature of church architecture during the Perpendicular period.   Earlier, it had been considered a luxury, but medieval merchants deemed the porch a necessity because much business was done “at the church door" (including the making of marriage contracts).  Frequently the space over the porch was used as a school room reached by a winding stairway.  In our church it provides the space for a balcony.  En­trance to the vestibules which lead into the sanctuary is through arched oak doors, now painted green, with wrought-iron fittings, and studded with large-headed iron nails.

In the Astor Street gable and in the northeast gable on Ogden Ave­nue are large arched windows showing the "tracery" typical of the period.  Tracery refers to the carved ornamentation (originally of stone, now of wood) overlying the glass in the upper part of the arch.  Of geometric design, the tracery pattern usually results in a number of "cusps," or points.  In large glass areas, the design is tied to the lintel by "mullions" or upright strips of molding.  Thismethod can be seen in the large gable windows and in a few others, but is missing from the grouped, narrow lancet windows of the sanctuary and elsewhere.   Tracery can also be seen on the outside in the upper part of the three roof dormers on the Ogden Avenue side (but only on this side) and in the steeple dormers.   Here the pattern outline of the cusps in the traceries forms a quatrefoil, a motif also found in the pew ends and a number of other places.  Incidentally, another interesting fea­ture of the dormers, not only on the Ogden Avenue side, but on the east and south sides also, is use of rubble masonry for the triangular areas above the windows.  In some sections of England this type of masonry was quite common, especially in places where chert and flintstone were abundant.

Other interesting features of the exterior are the many "bosses," knoblike ornamentations occurring at the sides and intersections of arches.  These are usually at the terminations of "dripstones," the curved stone moldings placed over doorways and windows to throw off the rain.   A number of these bosses are of the carved foliage type.  Others are of sculptured heads, some grotesque (as on the tower, where in medieval time a gargoyle might be placed), but most are beautifully carved with delicate features.  We know that the bearded one between the two archways on Astor Street is supposed to represent William H. Metcalf, an early benefactor, who died a few weeks before the present church was dedicated.  It may be that other of the heads were also meant to depict persons living at that time rather than conventional figures in church history.

In the sanctuary the most distinctive architectural feature is the hammer-beam construction of the steeply pitched roof.  In medieval churches there was no ceiling as we know it, only the underside of the roof.   (Perhaps the most famous building with the hammer-beam roof construction is London's Westminster Hall, in which Henry VIII was said to have played ten­nis.)  As can be readily seen, in this kind of construction solid oak beams bearing on the wall carry arches across from one side to the other, the whole resting on oak brackets which end in a carved stone ornamentation called a corbel.  At various points, the beams, trusses, and rafters are attached to each other by uprights; here the vertical tracery occurs again in a pattern resembling a cusped lancet.  Similar lancet patterns are also discernible in the elaborately carved canopies over the pulpit chairs, the chancel railing, and the organ chamber framework, although these additions were made later.

Altogether there are five hammer-beam arches in the sanctuary.  The four centered type were all originally studded with 42 light bulbs each, which, for the 1890s, was a stylish statement.   Also, note that only four of the five beams rest on corbelled brackets.  The eight corbels, all dif­ferent, are exquisitely carved, probably by Frank Stevens, known to be a skilled stone carver who worked on the original project.  For the most part, the corbel carvings consist of masses of naturalistic foliage with the ap­propriate accompaniment of blossoms, berries or nuts.  But the curious ob­server may also discover other objects hidden within the foliage:  a single bird, a pair of love birds, a squirrel, and what some say is a skull and others insist is the Green Man  himself!    The delicacy of the stone foliage in the corbels is reflected in the later-added pulpit chair canopies with their intricately carved foliage in wood.

During the Perpendicular period, use of stained glass for church windows was finally coming within financial reach of most parishes.  It would not be long before church windows would be emblazoned with scenes from the bible and the lives of saints.  But primarily the extension of glazed window space was done to provide more light.  So far as known, the pattern in the church's windows has no religious significance.  The glass used is lightly rippled, delicately colored, and highly translucent.  The pattern, used throughout and varied only to fit space, consists of cusped (scalloped might be more descriptive) lozenge-shaped pieces channeled to­gether by lead strips.  The effect is warm, graceful, and flowing, more like that of the preceding Decorated period rather than the severely geo­metric, diamond-shaped reticulation of the window panes we now associate with the buildings of old England.

The pattern in the windows is accented by placing "lozenges" of a con­trasting color at regular intervals.  In these accent pieces is centered a faceted bit which acts as a prism and accounts for that occasional "rain­bow 'round your shoulder" on sunny Sunday mornings.  In the upper tier of windows (the clerestory), the windows are, as you can see, rectilinear, but to the passer-by on Ogden Avenue they appear to be in keeping with the rest of the Gothic architecture because of the sharply-pointed dormers over them.   In these upper windows the glass is of a rich amber color with the accents in blue.   All other windows in the sanctuary use shades of green, ranging from very light to olive, and amber is used as the contrasting accent.  Elsewhere in the building, similar but not identical patterns are used; but other than in the second floor meeting room, glass in the windows is un­stained except for amber accents.

The tower of the building is so submerged into the roof lines as hardly to be recognizable as a tower.    From it rises the spire of the "broach" type, meaning that it emanates from the tower without adding a parapet.   The spire, as every member knows, culminates in a pinnacle topped by a weathercock which has become a symbol of Milwaukee Unitarianism.  Just when this feature was first introduced into English architecture, it is hard to say; but we do know that weathercocks were in operation on the very earliest English churches, long before the Perpendicular period.  Thus, our "rooster on the roof" is clearly not an innovation of recent times,  designed, as some have speculated, to avoid having to use a more conventional religious symbol (such as a Christian cross), but, rather, is entirely in keeping with the integrity of the "arch­itectural gem" he oversees.