Photo credit: Bill Verkuilen
Belmont Hotel
The Belmont Hotel, located at 409 W. Wells St., opened on Oct. 7, 1926. The five-story building was constructed with brick and steel. In the 150-room hotel, eighty of the rooms had attached baths, starting at $1.50 per day. During the strong early 1920s economy, development throughout the city of Milwaukee grew. A new batch of architects applied modern technology to make their craftsmanship well known in the city. The Belmont was built by one of the most prosperous of these firms, Martin Tullgren & Sons. The company was originally an architectural firm in Chicago and relocated to Milwaukee in 1902.
“The Belmont was never a ritzy hotel, but it’s always been a survivor” stated the Milwaukee Journal. Thirty years after opening, the coffee shop became the “headquarters of the night people,” a late-night landmark where musicians, hustlers, hookers, the homeless, strippers, actors, hippies, gamblers and vice cops would gather until bar close. If you were there to witness or partake in the antics that went on during that time, that’s a memory most of us don’t have today and will never see again in Downtown Milwaukee. From what I’ve heard and read, no one blinked or judged the escapades that took place. There was a community of all sorts with every margin of life represented.
Recalling personal experiences from Old Milwaukee group on Facebook:
Irma Roman recalls walking past the Belmont one night in 1995 or 1996, the police had some of the sidewalk taped off. There was a guy on the roof “throwing tires onto the street.”
Ken Stein recalls “The hotel was a gathering place for those who wanted camaraderie especially after midnight on any day of the week but especially the weekend.”
Jon Zwick stated “It was a trip to deliver beer there as well. We used the passenger elevator to take the beer downstairs. We had some very interesting riders at times.”
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Ruth Ann Shlimovitz had her first legal drink at the Belmont in July, 1964. “I turned 21 and worked at the Journal Sentinel. My friend and I walked over at lunch time and she bought me a drink. We knew it wasn’t where respectable “girls” went. I think it was a vodka gimlet and I was pregnant with my first child.”
Nancy Alvarado was at the bar the night it closed in February, 1996. “A co-worker’s wife was the bartender there. My co-worker (Harry) took his shirt off and danced on the bar. It made the front page of the Sentinel the next morning. Harry tried to call in sick, but our boss said “Harry, you’re on the front page of the paper!”
The exterior of the Belmont remained decent looking; however, once a ritzy hotel, it transformed into a low-rent rooming house. With no apparent commercial value, and pressure from the city demolition commenced on May 20,1996 to make way for the new Convention Center. The hotel’s residents were given $225 and 30 days to move. Today, 4th and Wells is silent and abandoned in the wee hours of the night when it used to be full of all sorts of unusual life and color. The enduring legacy of the hotel is the iconic and beloved signs that graced the building. Thankfully, the signs still live on at Hunzinger Construction Company in Brookfield.
Adam Levin is administrator of the Old Milwaukee Facebook group. facebook.com/groups/oldmilwaukee/ ,and author of Fading Ads of Milwaukee.
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Photo credit: Bill Verkuilen
Belmont Hotel
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Photo credit: Paul Weyrich
Belmont Hotel
Belmont Hotel - 1954
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Photo credit: Kevin Hansen
Belmont Hotel
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Karl Bandow Collection
Belmont Hotel
The Belmont Hotel
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Karl Bandow Collection
Belmont Hotel
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Photo by Adam Levin
Belmont Hotel
Belmont Hotel sign as of today at Hunzinger Construction in Brookfield.
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Photo by Adam Levin
Belmont Hotel sign
Belmont Hotel sign as of today at Hunzinger Construction in Brookfield.
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Adam Levin collection
Belmont Hotel matchbook
Belmont Hotel matchbook
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Historic Photo Collection - courtesy of Milwaukee Public Library
Belmont Hotel
Wells between 3rd & 4th, looking east. At right is Belmont Hotel.
The last days of the Belmont Hotel/bar: 1996. Credit - Mark Jenks
