National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Northwestern Branch, Smoke Stack, 5000 West National Avenue, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI

Significance: Building 106, Smoke Stack, is a reinforced concrete chimney constructed in 1922 to serve the engine and boiler house of the Northwestern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. It replaced the original brick chimney built in 1895 when the coal-fired engine and boiler house was constructed. It is significant as an integral component of the operation of the engine and boiler house as a central station for generating electricity and heat for the buildings of the Northwestern Branch, and as evidence of the expansion of the branch in the early 1920s under the direction of the Veterans Bureau, established in 1921. The use of a central station on the grounds of the branch eliminated the need for separate fuel supply and heating facilities for individual buildings, and allowed the expansion of the electric service. The use of the smoke stack spans the last years of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the establishment of the Veterans Administration, and the creation of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Survey number: HABS WI-303-E
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 05000530