For veterans of the Civil War through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the 90-acre Soldiers Home Historic District on the grounds of the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center has been a sanctuary for healing body and spirit. The district was recently named a National Landmark and one of the year’s 11 most endangered historic places in the country by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Soldiers Home Foundation is working to restore three buildings — the chapel, Ward Memorial Theater and Old Main — before they are lost to the ravages of time. The public is no longer allowed into those buildings because roofs are caving in, plaster is falling off the walls and structural damage has rendered them unusable. The plan is to raise funds to rehabilitate the three buildings for current and future veterans, says Jim Duff, president of the Soldiers Home Foundation.

The entire historic district was designated as an endangered landmark, says Ali Kopyt of the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, "because what’s important about the project is not just the buildings, but the grounds."

Duff says some have referred to the district as "Milwaukee’s Central Park," because it is a tranquil oasis in the city, bordered by West National Avenue and Bluemound Road, just west of Miller Park. Even before the Civil War, Duff says, Milwaukeeans used the grounds as a gathering place for band concerts, picnics and civic events.

But the district is much more than a peaceful park. National history lives here. Wood National Cemetery, for example, is the final resting place for several Buffalo Soldiers, African-Americans who fought in the Indian wars.

The legislation establishing a system of National Soldiers Homes was one of the last laws President Abraham Lincoln signed before his assassination. There were three such homes organized at that time, Duff says, in Maine, Ohio and Milwaukee. "This is the only one of the three still standing," Duff says. All of the buildings on the grounds, except the three slated for restoration, are being used today.

Construction of a Milwaukee Soldiers Home was a cause enthusiastically embraced by Wisconsin women, led by Cordelia Harvey, a Civil War nurse and widow of Gov. Louis Harvey. In June 1865, The women of the Milwaukee Soldiers Home Society staged a 10-day fair, raising $77,000 to create a facility for the care of veterans.

The soaring Old Main building, designed by architect Edward Townsend Mix, was originally a domiciliary, housing homeless soldiers returning from duty. Built in 1869, Old Main was the heart and soul of the Soldiers Home, and was occupied by veterans until the late 1980s. At its peak, nearly 1,000 veterans lived at Old Main.

Veterans originally held worship services at Old Main, but early on, the government pointed out that the services were a violation of separation of church and state, Duff says. So the veterans raised the funds to build a chapel on the grounds. The wood-frame chapel, built in 1889, was used for Catholic, Protestant and Jewish services and funerals, as well as its share of weddings.

Where the Hank Aaron Trail now runs past Ward Memorial Theater, there once was a passenger rail line. Kopyt says as the train pulled into the Soldiers Home station with returning veterans, "their sweethearts would be waiting for them, and they’d run right up to the chapel and get married."

The Ward Memorial Theater, built in 1883, once housed an amusement hall, restaurant and post office. As a theater, it presented national entertainers like Will Rogers, Bob Hope, the Burns and Allen comedy team, Sophie Tucker and Nat King Cole. Duff says the flamboyant pianist Liberace, as a young man, would often play concerts for veterans at the Ward, since he lived just across the street from the Soldiers Home. The theater is also an architectural treasure, with an enormous Tiffany stained glass window featuring an equestrian portrait of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

Despite their significant histories, Duff says, "Nobody wants these buildings to be museums. We want them to be restored, historically, and put right back into service for veterans."

For more information on the Soldiers Home Foundation, visit soldiershome.org

To Donate: Go to www.SaveTheSoldiersHome.com