Alonzo Robinson Jr., the first Black licensed architect in Wisconsin, designed Milwaukee’s Central City Plaza, built in 1973. The plaza became home to 14 Black-owned businesses at a time when fewer than 1% of Wisconsin businesses were Black-owned.
Two of Central City Plaza’s three buildings are now owned by the Salvation Army, which wants to demolish the building at 1747 N. Sixth St. to expand its homeless shelter services.
“The Salvation Army has served Milwaukee County’s most vulnerable residents on this city block for over 40 years at The Salvation Army Emergency Lodge,” a Salvation Army spokesperson said in a statement. “As we maintain our commitment to provide safe shelter for single men, women and families, there is need to expand increased services to this community.”
Now the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance and Docomomo US/Wisconsin are launching an effort to prevent the historic building from being torn down. Alonzo’s son, Kim Robinson, spoke at a community meeting at Pilcrow Coffee in February to gather support for the effort.
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“We are trying to work with the Salvation Army to show them that there are ways to not only preserve the building but adaptively reuse it,” says Emma Rudd, executive director of the MPA. For example, she says, the building could become the entrance to an expanded shelter.
On April 15, there will be a public hearing of the city’s Zoning, Neighborhoods, and Development Committee at City Hall as part of the process to determine if Central City Plaza will be designated historic landmarks by the Common Council. That would mean protection from demolition not only for the building at 1747 N. Sixth St., but the entire three-building complex. Supporters of the preservation effort are encouraging people to attend the meeting and speak in favor of designating the site a historic landmark.
Alonzo Robinson Jr., who died in 2000, was born in North Carolina in 1923. He served in the Navy during World War II and graduated from Howard University in 1951 with a degree in architecture. Three years later, he moved to Milwaukee, where he worked in the City Bureau of Bridges and Buildings before starting a private practice and founding Wisconsin’s first Black-owned architecture firm.
Robinson created designs for churches, public buildings and schools across the state. Black shopowners frequently reached out to him for commissions, and his skills played a key part in uplifting Black entrepreneurship. His designs include the former Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church at 2567 N. Eighth St. and the city’s Fire Department Administration Building at 711 W. Wells St.
Central City Plaza is one of his most significant projects, becoming one of Milwaukee’s first examples of New Formalism, a style of architecture which gained popularity in the ’60s and ’70s. Over the decades, the plaza has housed a bowling alley, a liquor store and a health care center, among other businesses. The Salvation Army purchased the Sixth Street building in May of 2024.
Robinson’s designs have been submitted to the Central Library’s archives, and his work is being documented by UW-Milwaukee historians through a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
