The school is descended from two music schools, both founded in Milwaukee in 1899: the Wisconsin College of Music, originally located in Mendelssohn Hall across the street from the Central Library, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, originally housed in the Ethical Building on Jefferson Street facing Cathedral Square. The two schools merged in 1971.[4]
Charles L. McIntosh was an industrialist who bought a controlling interest in J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. in 1895. He became a director of Milwaukee Harvester Company in 1902 and moved to Milwaukee. There he bought the lot on Prospect Avenue, which was then Milwaukee's "Gold Coast" - where the elites built elaborate homes. He hired Horatio R. Wilson of Chicago to design his mansion.[5] Wilson laid out a 3-story Neoclassical-styled building clad in red brick and trimmed in brownstone, with a monumental portico supported by four Corinthian columns. Wilson added quoins, a loggia wing, and a dentilated copper cornice. Inside is a mahogany staircase with a Tiffany-designed window on the landing, some parquet floors, ten fireplaces, a music room, and a billiard room. The floors were carefully constructed to absorb noise with layers of deafening quilts and two inches of mineral wool. The house was completed in 1904.[6]
McIntosh's widow Effie sold the mansion in 1921 to William Osbourne Goodrich and his wife Marie. William was the heir to Milwaukee's one linseed oil business. Marie was the oldest daughter of Frederick Pabst.[7][2] William appreciated music and after he moved his family to the northern suburbs in 1932, he eventually leased the building to the Wisconsin College of Music, rent-free.[6]
Today
The school educates over 1000 students each semester and holds classes in multiple locations throughout Milwaukee County. It employs over 50 teachers and performers. Both group classes and individual instruction are available. It has an annual budget of about $2 million, with 70% of the operating expenses covered by tuition.[2]
^"Reviews and Interviews". Jack Grassel Jill Jensen Jack and Jill Jazz Rock Blues Classical Country Guitar Books CDs Skype Lessons free music info. Retrieved 10 September 2018.