Sunday, September 2, 2012

Help Save The Eschweiler Buildings!

This past Friday, the Friends of the Monarch Trail hosted a Blue Moon Event on the county grounds in Wauwatosa.  The event was a smashing success:
When all the parking spaces at the Milwaukee County Parks building were full up, people started parking on the peripheries. And when they filled up, they started parking along the drive, until it was full, too.

So, you'd have to call it a capacity crowd Friday night for the Friends of the Monarch Trail's Blue Moon Party.

[...]

As the tour groups reached the Eschweilers, they learned the principal reason for Agnew's efforts in the face of all that development.

Flanking the Eschweiler Buildings on east and west are two groves, where each fall flotillas of monarchs stop to roost in clusters on the trees. It's only one of only four such annual roosting sites known in eastern Wisconsin, according to scientists at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Protecting that phenomenon of nature has become a passion and an obsession for Agnew and others who have joined her cause.
The article also mentions the Eschweiler buildings and how the Mandel Group, a private land developer, wants to raze most, if not all of the buildings and put up 192 apartments.  This would be a tragedy on many levels.  Not only would it add to the desecration of the only remaining pristine land in Milwaukee County, it would greatly endanger the Monarch Trail and the butterfly habitat.  It could also put Milwaukee County taxpayers in harm's way since the buildings have been designated as historical landmarks.

Fortunately, just as the Friends of the Monarch Trail are striving to save the butterfly's habitat, there is a movement to save the Eschweiler Buildings.  They are part of the County Grounds Coalition and have set up a website as well as a Facebook page to inform people of the peril of the buildings and the importance of saving them.

They have also started an online petition to show support for the preservation of these historic and priceless buildings. and are encouraging people to attend the next meeting of the Wauwatosa Common Council at which they are expected to discuss and vote on the future of the buildings and the Monarch habitat.  Please show your support and tell the Wauwatosa Common Council that there are things more important than pandering to wealthy land developers.

2 comments:

  1. For fun, I asked my mother if she thinks they should save those buildings she was quarantined in as a child. She volunteered to drive the bulldozer.

    But that's her

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  2. Imustberacist - I highly doubt your mom was quarantined at the School of Agriculture. Its a misconception that the buildings on Swan are the old sanitorium, not true. Go read the history.

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