Summer Recap: Wisconsin Soldiers Home & Veterans Cemetery

Way back in May, well before Memorial Day Weekend, I made a conscious effort to visit one of Milwaukee's most treasured landmarks for the very first time.  Not sure about its location (or parking for that matter), I always avoided going to the Wisconsin Soldiers Home, which is located on the VA Medical Center Grounds off of I-94 behind Miller Park.  But this is a historic area not to be missed for any Milwaukee visitor.  Built shortly after the Civil War, the grounds were used for over a century to care for Wisconsin's wounded soldiers home from the battlefields of, not just the Civil War, but both World Wars and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.  It also contained a tuberculosis hospital on its grounds in the 1920's as well as many other residential and recreational buildings.

Many of the grounds' remaining buildings were built between 1901 and 1917.  The grounds contain a towering main building (above/below), a library, a chapel, a recreation center, and a theater.

Unfortunately, many of the buildings on the grounds are in a very bad state of disrepair.  Fortunately, remodeling has begun on some of these buildings.  So, it was kind of hard to get super photos of the buildings since a lot of them had fencing around them.

 

 

Besides the Wisconsin Soldiers Home, the grounds house Milwaukee's veterans' cemetery.  One photo could not do the cemetery justice due to its vast expanse.

In this last photo, I decided to get a little creative.  I had just read a piece online about finding contrast in subjects.  So when I spotted this one grave marker where the writing was in black amongst all of the other carved writing, I knew it would make a good photo.

You can help save the Wisconsin Soldiers Home by visiting Save the Soldiers Home.  For more information, including a full history of the Soldiers Home, click here.

Waukesha's Prairie Home Cemetary Tour

I'm not usually a morbid person.  I'm not a huge fan of Halloween or horror films, and I normally would not be one to trapse through a cemetary on a Sunday afternoon looking for photo opportunities.  But, they are a great place to get shots of unique architecture and design, and one of the best I've been to is right in my backyard (although not literally): Prairie Home Cemetary in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Waukesha has been home to many prominent citizens in it's +200 year history, and it's no secret that some of its citizens have been some of the wealthiest in the state.  So I guess it's no surprise that headstones and markers in Prairie Home Cemetary would be so unique (see above for example - I mean, who puts a finger pointing to heaven at the top of their grave marker?).  But, thanks to a friend of mine who runs a photo challenge through Facebook, I had an excuse.  And, I must say, although it was quite morbid, I had a lot of fun.

The photo above and the two below were taken in a section of the cemetary dedicated to veterans of foreign wars.  Many of the veterans buried here served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East.  One of my friends from Waukesha South High School, Eric Smith, died in a helicopter crash in Iraq in 2005, and I did go through the rows of headstones to see if I could find his, but I didn't see it.  It was interesting to see all the different headstones, however, and I was glad I was able to take pictures post-Memorial Day.

Marker in front of the howitzer (above)

There were a few mauseleum's on the grounds as well for Waukesha's more prominent citizens as seen above and below. 

I had never seen such large headstones and markers as when I visited on Sunday.  I thought the two below were especially interesting:

 But, the most prominent citizen laid to rest at Prairie Home Cemetary is definitely Les Paul, the inventor of the electric guitar (please see my post "My Hometown: Guitar Town" to see last weekend's festivities in his honor).  Going to his gravesite reminded me a lot of when I saw Elvis Presley's gravesite at Graceland, especially the side-by-side graves of Les and his wife  (unfortunately, I couldn't get a good enough shot of them both).

Around the grave site is a wall featuring Les Paul's amazing accomplishments including awards and accolades.  But I loved the quote shown below for it's inspirational message.

All in all, it was a very peaceful afternoon at my city's cemetary.  I'm planning to move to the Bayview area of Milwaukee in the fall, so it was great to have an excuse to visit for possibly the last time.