Construction on the Corporate building was completed in April 1982.
Last month, the Corporate building turned 40. “April 21, 1982 was the grand opening of the branch office,” recalls senior ACH specialist Nancy Adamski, who was one of the first employees at the Brookfield Square branch when it made its debut. “I remember because it was very close to my one-year wedding anniversary!”
Help desk/telecom tech Pam Bradley was working as operations supervisor at the time.
“This building was such an improvement over the old location on Oakland and Lake Bluff in Shorewood,” she says. “In Shorewood, we were bursting at the seams. The new location had plenty of space to spread out, which everyone was looking forward to.”
“There was farmland all around us,” chairman and CEO Jim McKenna remembers. “Across the street, Brookfield Square existed, and next to it was a drive-in movie theater. Bluemound Road to the west was virtually all farmland, with the exception of Marty’s Pizza, where we would go for lunch.”
The building framework beginning to take shape.
This article in the Brookfield News / Elm Leaves newspaper detailed what happened to the Dousman house after it was moved to make room for the bank. Click the image for a larger, readable version.
The historic Dousman-Dunkel-Behling House originally sat on the Corporate lot. Built in 1842, the house became an inn 15 years later for stagecoach passengers traveling between Milwaukee and Watertown. After property owner John Behling sold the lot to North Shore Savings and Loan Association in 1980, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and donated to the Elmbrook Historical Society, which moved it to its current location on Pilgrim Parkway. The Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum now serves as the historical society’s headquarters.
The lot had to be lowered so that the five-story Corporate building didn’t exceed height limitations, Pam says. “There had been rumor at the time that we would have multiple buildings on the property,” she adds. “That never happened, and the land to our west — where the Milliman building and their parking lot is located — was sold.”
The building as it neared completion.
While the building’s exterior remains “almost identical” to that of its 1982 self, the interior is obviously a different story, says Nancy. She was working at West Allis when Jim Krause, a vice president at the time, asked if she wanted to be teller supervisor at the new office.
“The branch lobby looks much different than back in 1982,” she says. “The original decor had large, dark wood desks, credenzas, and tall wood dividing planters between them — much like banks in the 1940s and ’50s. The teller counter was much longer, with more teller stations. The area where the HR office is now was once part of the branch lobby, too. Parts of the other floors were also rented out to other businesses as office space. There was a jeweler on the fifth floor, and most of the fourth floor was an insurance company.”
Pam concurs, noting that the dividing planters were “large — I mean, really large.”
“Straight through the doors was the corporate receptionist. Nancy Hanson wasn’t the first, but will remember sitting there greeting our customers,” she says. “To the right, through the doors, was the mortgage production and servicing area. To the left was the new account, HR, and operations area. As operations supervisor, I had two employees working with me. HR was one person in an office.”
As North Shore Bank evolved, tenants moved out and the bank took over their space and now occupies the whole building.
“We’ve seen a lot of physical changes to the building since 1982 and moved more employees around than I can count, some of the same folks multiple times,” Pam says. “One thing is constant, though: It has always been filled with wonderful people.”