Courtesy Ann Wind Studio
The Rahr-West Art Museum’s Historic Vilas-Rahr Mansion, a Queen Anne style home built in 1893 that is on the National Register of Historic Places, will be getting elevator access for the first time later this year. Although supply chain delays have pushed back the opening date, museum and city staff are confident that the project will complete by the end of summer.
Work on the project began in late 2021. Due to the historic nature of the structure, an increased level of care was necessary in the preparation and excavation of the site. State historic preservation laws prohibited any renovation that disturbed the original floorplan of the Mansion, so architects developed a plan to repurpose an emergency stairwell built onto the home’s southwest corner in 1975, prior to the building’s designation on the National Register of Historic Places.
Visitors to the museum during the past eight months have been entering through the mansion’s north entrance, an enclosed “Porte Cochere” where the original inhabitants, Joseph and Mary Vilas, would have entered their home via horse and carriage. Interestingly, Mary Vilas was mobility impaired in 1893 when she and her husband completed the Mansion and moved in. The home at that time was not electrified, and elevator service was an impossibility. Consequently, Mrs. Vilas lived on a first floor bedroom, and even then had to be carried up a half-floor of stairs as all of the house was accessible only by staircase. The Mansion has been crying out for elevator service since it was built.
Museum staff and the public are both excited to be closing in on the project’s completion. Passersby will notice that the new elevator and emergency stairwell addition is nearing completion. Its combination of red brick and green siding is intended to mirror the original building. Similarly, viewers will note the row of windows on the third floor of the addition, which continue the visual plane of the mansion’s Third Floor windows. Rahr-West staff expect to reopen the museum’s main entrance and parking area at Eighth Street and Park Street in early August. The elevator itself will require assembly, testing and inspection. Museum management expect project completion in September, 2022.
The Rahr-West Art Museum elevator addition is the culmination of decades of planning, overcoming rejected plans and funding setbacks, and fulfilling the museum’s mission to “enrich life by serving as a cultural resource” to all members of our community. As the Vilas-Rahr Mansion elevator is nearly a reality, the Rahr-West Art Museum is excited to make its art collection truly accessible.
