County Celebrates Renovation of Clinton Rose Senior Center

Ribbon cutting for newly remodeled Clinton Rose Senior Center. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Hundreds gathered Wednesday to celebrate the newly renovated Clinton and Bernice Rose Senior Center.

On hand were County Executive David Crowley, Gov. Tony Evers, Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell, county department leaders and members of the Milwaukee County Board, including Sup. Priscilla Coggs-Jones, whose district includes the senior center, located at 3045 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Rose Park.

The approximately $4 million renovation is the largest investment in one of the county’s four senior centers in recent history. The project was made possible by a state grant awarded by Evers’ administration in 2024. For seniors and county officials, it was an opportunity to celebrate good news for a senior center a year after the McGovern Senior Center flooded and ultimately closed for good.

“Today is a great day,” said Shakita LaGrant-McClain, executive director of the Department of Health and Human Services, “because this is the work that we talk about every single day under the leadership of County Executive Crowley.”

Like other county buildings, senior centers have suffered from long-standing maintenance needs, a legacy of the county’s structural budget challenges. Before it was closed by flooding damage, McGovern Senior Center was in a woeful state of disrepair. In 2025, the Crowley administration proposed partnering with Jewish Family Services (JFS) to build a new mixed-use senior center at no cost to taxpayers, with affordable senior housing on floors above the center. The Milwaukee County Board blocked the project because it would have been built on the existing site in McGovern Park. Less than two months later, the historic storms and flooding hit and McGovern never reopened.

“At the end of the day, we know that it’s been a challenge for Milwaukee County to make these incredible investments,” Crowley said after celebrating the reopening of Clinton Rose. “It’s the first time, particularly with this senior center, in over 50 years that we’ve been able to renovate it.”

The excitement over the renovations was self-evident. The great hall at Clinton Rose was packed with seniors, family members and center staff. Among them was Shami L, who runs an arts program at Clinton Rose called Soulful Coloring. When she saw the newly remodeled arts room, she had an emotional reaction.

“First of all, I cried,” she said. “To see the cabinets dedicated to our art supplies, to see a wall where I could display our art. It just means so much.”

The project completely overhauled the entrance area to the senior center, adding a new ADA-compliant entryway with automatic sliding doors and a front desk and lobby area designed to be less institutional and more welcoming. The sewing room was expanded. The exercise room was moved out of a corner and into a large south-facing room with large windows and natural light. The cafeteria was expanded and new appliances were installed.

The general thrust of the renovation was guided by the county Aging Commission’s plan for 21st-century senior centers called MKE Hubs. The plan is also the source of a concept that would locate future senior centers in mixed-use buildings to take advantage of private financing for commercial development.

“We asked everyone who was involved to imagine a series of attributes that a senior center might have in the 21st century,” said Gene Guzkowski. “What we are here celebrating today, as we’ve all heard, is the result of all these works and all these imaginations.”

The updates were appreciated and well received by seniors who frequent the center. Lois Redic and Arcola Edwards are dancers with the Roselettes, a group that started at Clinton Rose in the early 1990s. Edwards said she feels like she’s walking into an “upscale hotel” now when she visits the senior center. Redic agreed, saying the new lobby does not feel like that of an aging public senior center.

Both women found their way to the Roselettes, a group that means very much to them now, through the open doors of the senior center. Redic started visiting Clinton Rose after retirement to play cards, but she saw friends dancing with the Roselettes and was drawn in. Edwards found out about the group while visiting the senior center to vote in 2008. At the time, she was under orders from her doctor to increase her physical activity. Her visit recalled the words of her mother, who said the senior center was the place where “there was a group of old ladies who could get down.” She joined up that year. “And I’ve been here ever since,” she said.

Across the county, communities have formed at the public senior centers. They are free and they offer affordable meals. Lunch at Clinton Rose is $3. They are also an entryway for the county’s “No Wrong Door” human services model, giving seniors like Redic and Edwards who come to dance an opportunity to receive a consultation from a benefits specialist or access to transportation options available to seniors, LaGrant-McClain explained.

“It really makes a difference for me. I worked as a public librarian, so I was always used to being with people,” Redic said. “So to get up in the morning at 79 years old and have something to do in a safe place with my peers makes a difference for me. And I can hang here as long as I want to.”

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