beachheadted

Milwaukee's favorite architect Carl Ringer designed the Goll House in 1900 for Mr. HG Goll. Who would have thought that a simple bank clerk could afford such a luxurious home in the Concordia area of Milwaukee, but build it they did and soon after Mr. Goll was arrested and spent 16 years in prison for embezzling 1.5 million dollars from the First National Bank. That's about 36 million dollars in today's money. Since then the Goll House has passed on to various owners and partnerships, including a fraternity for Marquette University in the 60's and 70's. DA Zoo as it was known at the college was host to numerous pig roasts and beach parties and in time lost their charter as a result. (You can't make this stuff up.) The last person that owned the home, let's just call him John L excelled in two things I am told-hoarding and decorating the home for Christmas all year long. That would explain all the small hooks in most of the moldings on the first floor and the odd wiring all over the place. Since then it had fallen on hard times and for some 12 years, possibly longer the house sat vacant and boarded up except for a hole in the roof that you could drive a car through neighbors have told me. The city didn't want to loose another mansion in historic Concordia and put on a new roof and gutters and carefully laid their trap. For a dozen years the home has sat vacant waiting and waiting for some poor sap to take the bait. Turns out that poor sap is me, a 30 year professional artist and owner of the The Sand Sculpture Company, 8 world records, author of two books and now owner of a second fixer upper. And if I remember correctly I am on record saying that I would never restore another historical house again. My how things have changed!
Why retire when you can torture yourself the remaining years of your life wearing a dust mask and arms scarred from tearing out 10,000 square feet of filth, rot and neglect. Like JFK said "we go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." I guess I needed a bigger challenge. Follow the progress of the Goll House as it rises from the ashes to start a new life as a B and B. Advice and encouragement is warmly embraced and as soon as I learn how to blog I will get that up and going too.
Cheers.