A National Historic Landmark Returns to Form as a Home for Veterans
Section 106 Success Story: Milwaukee Soldiers Home (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
photo by: Mark Fay
Aerial view of the Milwaukee Soldiers Home Complex.
During the Civil War, a group of women in Milwaukee organized a temporary home where returning soldiers could receive meals and medical care. Their efforts raised more than $100,000 and helped inspire the creation of a permanent veterans' home. In March 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation establishing the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and two years later, the Milwaukee Soldiers Home opened as one of its first three branches. The 90-acre campus provided housing, recreation, worship, education, and medical care, and today this National Historic Landmark remains the most intact of the original Soldiers Homes.
By the early 2000s, however, many of the campus's signature buildings—including the iconic Old Main—had sat vacant for decades. Deteriorating conditions and deferred maintenance threatened them, and the site's original mission of serving veterans had largely disappeared. The challenge was not simply preserving historic buildings but restoring the purpose for which they had been created.
Because the project involved a National Historic Landmark, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) conducted consultation under Section 106 and Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The VA, the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office, the National Park Service, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, the city of Milwaukee, and other parties, including veterans groups came together to develop a preservation strategy for the campus.
What We Would Have Lost
The Milwaukee Soldiers Home is an example of Section 106 helping deliver a preservation win, housing, and a public benefit together rather than forcing communities to choose between them. By bringing preservation advocates, federal agencies, and developers together early, consultation produced a project that protected a National Historic Landmark while creating desperately needed housing for veterans. If enacted, the July 2026 proposed changes to the Section 106 regulations by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation would not involve stakeholder input until much later in the process, if at all, likely resulting in a different outcome for this project.
photo by: Ryan Hainey Photography
View of the Old Main Building on the Milwaukee Soldiers Home National Historic Landmark District.
As a result, they produced an agreement that established a long-term framework for stewardship of the historic district, including campus-wide preservation planning, stabilization of deteriorating historic buildings, ongoing consultation, and project-specific Memoranda of Agreement for future undertakings. The collaborative process helped build public support for the project and ensured rehabilitation could meet modern veterans’ housing needs while preserving the campus's nationally significant historic character.
In 2021, following a 10 year preservation effort six historic buildings in the Milwaukee Soldiers Home National Historic Landmark District have reopened to provide housing for homeless veterans—101 supportive housing units in the Old Main tower alone. This pioneering and impactful rehabilitation was made possible by committed Section 106 consultation, sustained public engagement, strong advocacy, creative public/private partnerships, and the use of historic tax credits.
Returning the Soldiers Home to the Service of Veterans
The success of this project is in part due to the work of the Alexander Company and its use of federal Historic Tax Credits.
Adapted from an Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Section 106 Success Story.
