Photo illustration: Dave Zylstra
It’s all about the volunteers. The Irish Cultural and Heritage Center (2133 W. Wisconsin Ave.) occupies a large historic building whose centerpiece, the former sanctuary of the Grand Avenue Congregational Church, is now a concert hall. Operating and maintaining the structure, built in 1886, is a massive undertaking sustained by the community it serves. Volunteers have helped fix leaking roofs and broken boilers and gradually remodel the old church into a contemporary concert hall.
Building manager Tim O’Sullivan, the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center’s (ICHC) only paid employee, has supervised recent projects such as painting and plastering the Hallamor (concert hall) and enlarging its wooden stage, fronted with panels taken from old pews. A bar in the corner was also constructed from old pews, allowing concert-goers to imbibe while enjoying the music. As well as much of the physical labor, the work of managing and promoting the ICHC’s concert series and other cultural events is done by volunteers.
“It’s definitely a labor of love,” says Rory Modlinski, ICHC’s marketing and entertainment director. Modlinski and publicist Kathleen Schultz are showing me around the rehabbed Hallamor. The former church’s congregants from a century ago might be shocked by the presence of a bar, yet the addition is made from the same dark wood that furnished their sanctuary and its many remaining pews, still used for seating. Light trickles through beautiful stained-glass windows into the high-ceilinged hall flanked by three balconies and one of the most massive pipe organs in Wisconsin. “We have tried to keep the room as original as we can but make it a working house,” Modlinski explains.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Progressive history clings to the site. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in the sanctuary of the Grand Avenue church. Long before the grand building on Wisconsin Avenue was erected, the congregation, worshipping at another site, was a Milwaukee station on the Underground Railroad. Before the Civil War, parish activities included hiding escaped slaves on their way to freedom in Canada. However, by the 1990s, the congregation had dwindled and most of the building was empty.
The Irish Take Charge
Spurred by the Shamrock Club and other Milwaukee Irish activists, the ICHC assumed ownership of the building (already on National Register of Historical Places) in 1996. The concert series began the following year and has included shows by Cherish the Ladies, Gaelic Storm and many others. Some of the acts are familiar to Milwaukee audiences from previous concerts at Irish Fest, but the ICHC has also been willing to take chances on rising stars in Eire than remain unknown in North America. This spring, the ICHC is launching a parallel series dedicated to an American music with Celtic roots: bluegrass. First up will be a Minneapolis bluegrass band, The High 48s, on Sunday, April 5.
In addition to the Hallomar, the ICHC houses smaller performance halls, rehearsal spaces for local performing groups, a lending library (open noon-4 p.m. on first and third Mondays each month), a genealogical archive and rooms for meetings by numerous community organizations. In addition to the newly installed bar in the Hallomar, alcohol is also served at Quinlan’s Pub located elsewhere in the building. The ICHC is part of the network that has made Milwaukee a worldwide mecca of Celtic culture through Irish Fest.
Schultz credits Ed Ward, one of the founders of Irish Fest, who passed away last year. “He was an amazing person,” she recalls. Although he never served on the ICHC board of directors, he was always ready with advice and willing to help. “He had the vision, and nothing would stop him,” Schultz recalls. “‘We’re going to die someday,’ he said. ‘We have to get young people involved.’ That’s what he did, and that’s why we’ve been so successful.”
Upcoming concerts at the ICHC include Socks in the Frying Pan, a traditional Irish band, on Saturday, March 7, and Dublin singer Aoife Scott on Saturday, April 4. For tickets and more information, call 414-219-0010 or visit ichc.net.
