German-English Academy Building

Historic place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

The German English Academy Building is a school built in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1891 for the German English Academy (founded in 1851), which later became the University School of Milwaukee. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now owned by the Milwaukee School of Engineering. It is beside the Grohmann Museum.

The 3½ story building was designed by Charles D. Crane and Carl C. Barkhausen, the latter was himself an alumnus of the German English Academy. Barkhausen was later trained in architecture in Germany. Aside from teaching German, the Academy brought in other ideas from German education at the time: singing, drawing and domestic science classes; physical education based on the German Turner movement. In 1873 the Academy offered the first kindergarten in Milwaukee. Classes initially met in the home of Peter Engelmann, the first teacher, but soon outgrew that. with a limestone foundation, cream brick walls, bands of windows, small towers on the corners, small arcades, and a hip roof. The Milwaukee Turner Society funded the northern gymnasium block (on left) which is similar, but with arcades of large windows to let light into the gymnasium, and with towering chimneys. Designs on the gymnasium's terra cotta spandrels depict Indian clubs, foils, and other Turner athletic equipment. Both blocks were designed by Charles D. Crane and Carl C. Barkhausen (a former student of the Academy), achieving a unified design. The new building allowed study of manual arts for boys, domestic science for girls, and phy ed for both. It housed a natural science museum and labs for physics and chemistry. The Academy produced many teachers for Milwaukee's public school system and "in 1900, the Superintendent of Schools credited 'Engelmann's School' with being the model for the public school system." During WWI, amidst suspicion of all things German, the German English Academy changed its name to the Milwaukee University School. In 1927 that school moved to River Hills. The building was converted in 1930 to a furniture store, with extensive changes to the interior. In 1933 the Milwaukee School of Engineering acquired it and resumed using it for education. In 1982 the facade was restored and the interior remodeled as offices.