Century-Old Illustrated Fireplace Delights Students

Once upon a time, some public schools in Milwaukee featured fireplaces, often decorated to capture the imagination of young students. A scared child entering kindergarten class for the first time might be comforted and delighted by images from Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes, of smiling flowers, a queen eating bread or a farmer trying to catch his horse.

There are a number of schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system that feature these tiled fireplaces with delightful imagery, including Keefe Elementary, Hartford University School, Wisconsin Ave School, the MPS Success Center (formerly Green Bay Ave School) and James Whitcomb Riley School, today known as the Riley Dual Language Montessori School. These, according to my ongoing research, were the first schools in the state to feature fireplaces with tiles. There are many period buildings in the metro area — schools, churches, businesses, and private homes — showcasing beautiful Arts & Craft tiles.

Nowadays, fireplaces in classrooms may seem an oddity. However, during the late 1910s through the 1930s in Milwaukee, designing them as a part of the kindergarten room was the norm, all part of an effort to help beginning students make the transition from their home (which probably had a fireplace) to school life.

The architects, Van Ryn & DeGelleke were hired by the school board in 1912 and designed schoolhouses for MPS until 1924.  The specifications for the school’s construction stipulated that the kindergarten room’s fireplace must use tiles of nursery rhymes. The James Whitcomb Riley School, at 2424 South Fourth Street, built in 1921, was one of those schools. Its fireplace showcases five nursery rhymes: Three Blind Mice, Hickory Dickory Dock, Sing a Song for Sixpence, The Farmer in the Dell, and Polly Put the Kettle On.

I had a chance to visit and chat with a group of Riley students about the fireplace in their school. At first they did not recognize the specific nursery rhymes on the tiles. However, when I asked, they started singing other nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, Twinkle Little Star, The Muffin Man, Ol’ McDonald, Patty Cake, and How Much I Love You. Mia Gaskell, seven-years old, shared that her mother reads these stories to her at night and from a “plushy that plays music.” Ten-year-old Eliana Peña added “we know these from Cocomelon [on YouTube] too.”

Brandon Robins, 8, initially thought the tiles were “painted stone.” Raquel Martín, 9, placed her fingertips on the tiles and said, “If you come and feel it, it’s different.” The students were amazed to learn it was the same material they used to make pottery: clay.

The Arts & Crafts tiles on their fireplace were created with a technique known as tube-lining. After the tiles were cut, a tile designer outlined an image with liquid clay by squeezing it out of a tube or a bag. Glazes between the “bumps” were applied with a brush.

After the tiles were heated in a kiln, possibly as high as 2300 degrees Fahrenheit, the tiles became as hard as stone. The textures have a matte, crystalline finish that make them easy on the eyes.

These designs do not appear in any tile manufacturer catalog, so it is most likely they were custom pieces of art commissioned for the school. What we do know, however, is that the unknown tile designer left us with many intricate details in each picture based on illustrations by English artist and book illustrator, Walter Crane (1845-1915).

In the panels Sing a Song for Sixpence, the tile makers reproduced illustrations from Crane’s The Baby’s Opera: A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses, originally published in 1877. The reproductions in tile show much more detail, bringing Crane’s sketches to life. In the tile, the queen has already bitten into a slice of bread held between her delicately-rendered fingers. As for the king in the counting house, the coins are individually outlined and the king, dressed in his robe decorated in spades, is ready to count each one of them. You also see scrolls of his countings and chests with padlocks to keep them secure.

Nicholas Davis, 10, describes his favorite panel: “The middle one looks like a farmer is trying to tell his dog to catch the horse… and the horse is catching the cow.” The panel is a reproduction of Crane’s illustration for the book The Baby’s Bouquet, A Fresh Bunch of Rhymes and Tunes published in 1878. The original print and the tiles could hardly be more alike.

In the tiles for Polly Put The Kettle On, the tile reproduction of Crane’s illustration also comes from The Baby’s Bouquet. The dishes in the cupboard, the hook over the fire, and the outfit Sukey wears resembles the original drawing nearly-spot on. Though, what was originally a print with red, yellow, and black lines has become a tiled design full of color and texture. The floor has blue-and-white checkers that match Sukey’s blue dress and the cobalt decorations on the porcelain dishes, and her blonde hair matches the yellow teapot and flames of the fire.

In the Three Blind Mice, the farmer’s wife is seen with her knife, bending down to cut the mice’s tails. The panel is also combined with the subtle reference to Hickory Dickory Dock, showing Crane’s illustration of the unique clock from The Baby’s Opera. As Raquel Martín notices, there is “a moon and a clock with the face of a cat… meow!”

Today, the school’s original kindergarten room is known as a Community Room, and is used as a shared space for class activities, recess, a Community Learning Center, and special occasions such as the Christmas gift exchange.

Eliana Peña notes how the fireplace is peaceful and calm, adding that “it lets people have fun because it gives people good vibes and doesn’t let people feel down.”

Even though the specific nursery rhymes were unknown to the children, there is something about these tiles that make them timeless and charming. It could be that their colors are bright yet restful. Or that the whimsical, cartoon-like illustrations are enchanting. It could also be that fireplaces have always been a place to gather, relax and tell stories.

The students also thought about creating new tiles to add above the mantel. Mia Gaskall would like to show “an artist who is drawing a picture of a sunset, which I’m really good at.” And Brandon Robins said he would create “a room full of kids playing with each other and sharing.”

As unique and amazing as the tiles are, the fireplace at Riley school is not the only well-preserved gem in Milwaukee Public Schools. More to come in future stories.

Ben Tyjeski, an art teacher at MPS Garland School, is a tile maker and historian who has written a book on Milwaukee’s Arts and Crafts tile creations. This is the first article in a series, Tile Town, about the tiles.

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