Villa Terrace Museum and Gardens

Lloyd R. Smith House
Location2220 N. Terrace Ave.,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Coordinates43°3′27.6″N 87°52′50.54″W / 43.057667°N 87.8807056°W / 43.057667; -87.8807056
Built1923
ArchitectDavid Adler, Rose Standish Nichols
Architectural styleRenaissance
NRHP reference No.74000107 [1]
Added to NRHPDecember 30, 1974

Villa Terrace is a historic house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was built in 1924 for the Lloyd R. Smith family - an Italian Renaissance-style home on a bluff above Lake Michigan. Since 1966 the house and grounds have housed the Villa Terrace Museum.[2] It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Lloyd R. Smith House.

History

Lloyd Smith (1883–1944) was the president of A.O. Smith Corporation.[3] He married Agnes Gram in 1915. After returning from a trip to Italy, Lloyd and Agnes commissioned architect David Adler to design their new home. The architecture and water stairs were inspired by Villa Cicogna Mozzoni (built in the 1560s) in Lombardy, Italy.[citation needed] Smith called the house Sopra Mare, which is Italian for "above the sea."[2] The general form is a rectangle surrounding an open central courtyard. Walls are of red brick that has been painted white. The roof is covered with barrel tile. Inside, the original rooms included a dining room with a beamed ceiling of pecky cypress wood, a living room with 2 fireplaces and pegged walnut floor, and a library.[4] The ironwork in the home is from the Milwaukee studio of Cyril Colnik,[2] an Austrian-born blacksmith.[5]

Courtyard of Villa Terrace

The surrounding bluff is landscaped with terraces and formal gardens, a "water stairway," fishponds, and two secret gardens.[6] Rose Standish Nichols is credited with the original landscape design.[4]

Lloyd Smith died in 1944. In 1966 Agnes donated their home to Milwaukee County to serve as a Decorative Arts Museum. Some rooms were converted to offices, but the house and grounds changed little with the transition from home to museum.[4] In 1976, a formal planting of sugar maple bosques with privet hedges and white gravel was installed.

Villa Terrace's art collection features fine and decorative arts dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries, wrought iron masterpieces by Cyril Colnik and changing exhibitions.[5] It is also the host of a Garden Lecture series, in which attendees are able to learn more about planning and maintenance for their home gardens.[7]

Renaissance Garden

In 1997, the Friends of Villa Terrace committed themselves to restore the gardens at Villa Terrace. Based on the master plan created by Dennis Buettner of Buettner & Associates,[6] volunteers with the Renaissance Garden Club began two years of site clearing in the spring of 1998. Construction of the gardens began in 2000 and continued for two more years. After four years of work, the gardens officially opened to the public in September 2002.[8] Since that time, the gardens have been continuously maintained by the Friends of Villa Terrace.

Weddings

Villa Terrace is a popular site for weddings and receptions in Milwaukee. The Italian villa, picturesque garden, unique stairways and breath-taking views of Lake Michigan provide scenery that would otherwise only be attainable by traveling to Europe.

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c "Lloyd R. Smith House (Sopra Mare)". Wisconsin Historical Society. January 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  3. ^ "Lloyd R. Smith Dies; Milwaukee Industrial Head". Chicago Tribune. December 24, 1944. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Mary Ellen Wietczykowski; Donald N. Anderson (August 17, 1974). "NRHP Inventory/Nomination: Villa Terrace Museum of the Decorative Arts". National Park Service. Retrieved April 27, 2017. With one photo.
  5. ^ a b "Collections". Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum. Retrieved April 27, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  6. ^ a b "Renaissance Garden". Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum. Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  7. ^ Demski, Joanne Kempinger (March 16, 2017). "Villa Terrace hosts gardening lectures". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  8. ^ Bauer, Fran (August 28, 2002). "Gardens reborn - Villa Terrace re-creates Italian Renaissance splendor". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved November 23, 2023 – via NewsBank.

Media related to Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum at Wikimedia Commons

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Terrace_Decorative_Arts_Museum