Groundbreaking For Coggs Center a History Lesson

Groundbreaking for the new Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Construction is underway on a new home for Milwaukee County’s health and human services programs.

The facility is designed to embody the county’s “No Wrong Door” model which intends to connect residents with the services they need regardless of how they first connect to any county program or facility. “This new building definitely represents the right door,” said Department of Health and Human Services Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain at a ceremony Monday. “The new Coggs Center will be a welcoming space for families to access services with dignity across the human services continuum of care.”

“For the first time, Milwaukee County will have a building designed specifically to deliver health and human services to the people we serve,” said County Executive David Crowley. The first floor will house service offerings and the Friedens Food Pantry, while the upper floors will house administrative offices.

The four-story, 60,000-square-foot building will rise at the corner of N. 13th and W. Cherry streets, filling a parking lot behind the current facility, a converted department store known as Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center. The new building will keep the same name, a source of pride for more than a dozen Coggs family members who attended Monday’s groundbreaking and a way of recognizing a “trailblazer for healthier families,” said Crowley.

The $42 million project is being designed by Engberg Anderson Architects. JP Cullen is the leading general contractor. Milwaukee County is funding $32 million of the project’s costs with a portion of its federal American Rescue Plan Act grant.

“Together we will create a healthier community. As we put shovels into the dirt, they will represent a renewed commitment to the health of our community,” said LaGrant-McClain.

The new facility is to planned for completion in the first quarter of 2025.

Marcia P. Coggs’ Legacy

Monday’s ceremony was less about what the building will offer and more about the legacy of Marcia Coggs, for whom the building is named.

“Marcia was a committed leader whose mission was to enable social change,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

In 1977, Coggs became the first African American woman elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature. Later she became the first African American to serve on the Joint Committee on Finance, the Legislature’s most powerful committee. She passed away in 2003 at the age of 75.

Her granddaughter Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, a member of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, called her the “conscience of the state of Wisconsin.” Marcia Coggs was known for her work on fair housing, education, apartheid, integration and human rights. “She was a force to be reckoned with.”

“When she spoke, everybody listened,” said City Treasurer Spencer Coggs, Marcia’s nephew. Spencer served alongside Marcia in the Legislature for a decade.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants, and in our family there is no bigger giant than the legacy and history of Marcia P. Coggs,” said Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs, the late legislator’s great niece.

Marcia’s daughter, Elizabeth Coggs, noted that her mother wasn’t a literal giant. “She was no joke. She was 4’11”, but she was no one to contend with,” said Coggs, a former state representative and county supervisor.

But her height didn’t limit her ability to lead, or to feed. “She always fed everybody,” said Elizabeth. A cookbook of Marcia’s recipes was given out to attendees, and it reflects Marcia’s battle with diabetes and hypertension. “That cookbook is mom and some of the family recipes without salt, without sugar and without the ham products.”

Before winning elected office, Marcia worked for 13 years for the Milwaukee County Children’s Home. She quietly didn’t file for re-election in late 1992, clearing a pathway for nephew Leon Young to run for the seat with virtually no opposition.

Marcia was the matriarch of a political dynasty. But her husband, Isaac Coggs, also played a key role in its formation. He was the first Coggs elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving from 1953 to 1964. In 1964, he became the first African American elected to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.

What Happens To the Current Building?

The current building was constructed in phases between 1910 and 1923 for Schuster’s department store. It served that use until 1961, when it was purchased by the county for its Department of Welfare. It was renamed after Marcia P. Coggs in 2003.

Earlier this year, Milwaukee County issued a call for interested parties to repurpose the Schuster’s building. A representative of Crowley’s office said that effort is on-going. An earlier version of the plan called for the building to be demolished for parking.

The push for a replacement took on increased urgency in 2021. A 2021 county administration report concluded that the county should sell the Coggs Center, as it was becoming a financial liability due to deferred maintenance and the looming departure of its co-tenant, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The state agency, which provides access to FoodShare and BadgerCare benefits, relocated in 2022 to leased space several miles northwest at 6055 N. 64th St., depriving the county of revenue to sustain the building. Also in 2022, the northern tip of the Coggs Center property, previously used for parking, was redeveloped into a home for the Milwaukee County Mental Health Emergency Center.

Led by another county American Rescue Plan Act allocation, the King Park neighborhood around the Coggs Center is seeing a surge in new, affordable housing construction. Across N. 13th Street, several new houses, built by Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, could be seen in various stages of construction. “There are many good things happening in the King Park neighborhood and it is our hope that the Coggs Center will continue to add to this positive momentum,” said Crowley.

County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson missed the groundbreaking with an illness, but supervisors Felesia Martin and Willie Johnson, Jr. were spotted in the crowd alongside chief judge Carl Ashley, senators Lena Taylor and LaTonya Johnson and representative Kalan Haywood II.

Photos

12►