Washington Park

Save St. Thomas Church

Feb 14, 2000

The beautiful building that formerly housed the Catholic church of St. Thomas Aquinas (built in 1913) at 1952 North 36th Street south of W. Brown Street has been home the past five years to the Lisbon Avenue Community Center and the offices of L.A.N.D., the Lisbon Avenue Neighborhood Development Corporation, tasked by the City of Milwaukee with development of the service area that includes the Washington Park and Walnut Hill neighborhoods.

Now Milwaukee Public Schools wants to demolish this complex to provide extra parking and playground space for the adjoining Westside Academy II middle school. It makes no sense for the school to pursue its own needs at the expense of the neighborhood which surrounds and hosts the school.

We need to find another solution that MPS can live with.

Meanwhile, we have gained a powerful ally in Mayor John Norquist, who told those gathered at a Neighborhood Renewal Workshop in the old church on Saturday, February 12th, 2000 that "it would be an absolute crime to tear down this beautiful building! ... On Monday [Feb. 14th] I will send a letter to MPS stating my total opposition to this demolition plan.

That was greeted with tremendous applause. But it still leaves us with the task of coming up with an alternative plan that MPS can accept. What we are looking at is a plan that encompases the future of the entire block bounded by Lisbon on the south, Brown on the north, and 35th and 36th streets on the east and west. Part of this plan will include the future of the Lisbon Avenue Clinic (in the former Park Electric Building) which seeks to expand to the corner of 36th & Lisbon.

There will be a Town Meeting on Saturday Morning February 19th at 10 am at the Community Center, 1952 N. 36th Street. We very much need your support and ideas. Please try to attend if you are at all able to do so.

It's our future.