A MEMORABLE STROLL THROUGH KENWOOD HALL

Iva Gundrum had only vague memories of Kenwood Hall, the lakefront UWM residence hall she lived in during the early 1960s. So while making plans for a June 2022 reunion with other UWM alumni, she stopped by with a friend to take a few photos of it.

The building sits at 3230 E. Kenwood Blvd., and it’s now a private residence that’s no longer part of UWM. The new owner, Andy Nunemaker, happened to be home when Gundrum stopped by, and he opened the door to ask if he could help her. After Gundrum explained how it used to be her residence hall, he surprised her by offering a private tour on the spot.

Gundrum would return there as part of the June reunion, which was timed to coincide with the residence being the 2022 Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse. Although the June reunion’s main festivities were at the Hefter Center, a tour of the former Kenwood Hall was also on the agenda. And as the gathering of about two dozen people got underway, so did the reminiscing.

Their collegiate home offered a perfect balance – lakeside living that was only a few blocks from campus. “When we were in our 20s, it was a hop, skip and a jump,” Gundrum says. Still, they recalled gladly accepting rides from strangers on cold winter mornings in lieu of walking to campus.

They also remembered how everybody pitched in to help with dishes, and about the one time that Eleanor Roosevelt came for dinner. And about longtime Kenwood Hall house mother Lillian Fuller, and how anyone who smoked kept it such a secret that even 50-some years later, their classmates were surprised to learn about it.

The former Kenwood Hall and Alumni House, which is now a private residence.

When the group toured the remodeled house, they were delighted and touched to find that Nunemaker had devoted a room to the residence’s storied past. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents originally bought the 25,000-square-foot mansion in 1949 to serve as a student dormitory for Milwaukee State Teachers College, one of UWM’s predecessor institutions. In 1964, the building was converted to UWM’s Alumni House, and it hosted countless events.

After UWM decided to sell the building, Nunemaker, a Milwaukee entrepreneur and philanthropist, purchased it in January 2021. And though the property is no longer under the UWM umbrella, its many memories certainly are.

“Those pictures meant a lot to us,” Gundrum says.

– Kathy Quirk