U.S.A. Provincial House

For many decades, the Kearney-Trecker Corporation, a tool and die manufacturing company, was a hallmark of Milwaukee industries. This house, which has been the USA Province headquarters of the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians) since 1958, is the former Trecker Family Mansion. A nephew of the Trecker family, Fr. William Nern, was one of our priests before his death in 1966. Begun in 1915 and finished in 1917, this Edwardian-style home has several interesting features:

• The flooring on all three floors is supported by steel girders, not the usual wood girders.
• Central vacuuming was originally built into the house (it has since been removed).
• The living room and guest rooms on the third floor was once the family’s ballroom.
• There was a dumb-waiter that went from the first-floor kitchen to the ballroom (it has been disabled).
• Our Parlor on the first floor was the family’s Dining Room. Notice the 1926 bas-relief stained-wood carving of the Last Supper there. Commissioned by the family through the Moroder Studios, it was carved in Tivoli, Italy.
• The double doors at the entrances of the parlor and the Conference Room have a “chain mechanism” built into the walls. Close or open one door, the other does the same.
• Our central offices on the first floor were the family’s Kitchen and Butler’s Pantry.
• One of our bedrooms on the second floor was the family’s Meditation Room.
• Our dining room in the basement was the family’s Billiard Room.
• Our kitchen in the basement was the family’s Exercise Room.
• The family’s spacious garage has been converted into our Chapel and several offices.
• In the original garage, there was a large turn-table in the flooring, as Mrs. Trecker did not like driving the car in reverse down the 120-foot driveway – she could flip a switch in the garage to turn the car around!