Wioletta’s Polish Market at 3955 S. Howell Avenue

Wioletta’s Polish Market at 3955 S. Howell Avenue

By Mike L. Garvey

If you travel on Howell Avenue through the neighborhoods of Tippecanoe and Town of Lake you might recall that for decades a building that is now home to Wioletta’s Polish Market, was once a hardware store named Tippecanoe True Value.

The first iteration of the building at 3955 S. Howell Avenue was constructed in 1941 in what was then the Town of Lake. The original owner was Herman R. Breve who operated the original Tippecanoe Hardware store at 3863 S. Howell Avenue which was north of Howard Ave. Breve, who lived at 343 E. Plainfield Ave, hired a Town of Lake neighbor, carpenter and contractor, Fred Gaulke, who lived nearby at 4253 S. Austin.

Construction moved quickly. The first recorded building permit is dated March 29, 1941, and by May 2nd Findlay Electric installed 40 electrical outlets. The original footprint of the structure was 36-foot wide with a 60-foot length and no second floor. The Town of Lake Directory from that same year lists the former store at 3863 S. Howell occupied by the Hi Way Pharmacy.

Breve retired in 1946. An advertisement in the 1946 TOL City Directory shows Florian J. Senk as the new proprietor of the Tippecanoe Hardware store.

The post World War 2 years must have been good for business. In April of 1948 Senk applied for a permit to build a two-car garage behind the store. Then in January 1951 Senk developed plans and applied for permits to build a foot wide addition each side of the building for storage, and increasing the length to 110 feet, which included a second story and attached garage/storage to the west, (rear of the building). These plans also included additional basement and when completed in 1956 gave the building the architectural silhouette present today.

In 1973, David F. Sterling, Jeffery A. Sterling and Richard R. Sterling, who owned a True Value Hardware Store on the north side of Milwaukee purchased the Tippecanoe hardware business and building. It is unclear to the author if they were all co-owners or to what extent they were all involved in the business of the hardware store.

In 2003 there was a zoning issue with the City of Milwaukee. A city inspector from the Department of Neighborhood Services issued a citation because of stored merchandise on the sidewalk. The merchandise in question was skids loaded with bags of rock salt. The Sterlings hired the law firm of Peterson, Johnson & Murray S.C. who secured a variance on the citation by presenting photographs showing that big block stores in the area placed skids of bagged rock salt in the same manner, including the former Toys R Us store on South 27th street. They also appealed to the Zoning Commission’s sense of community by pointing out how long they were established in the community and were accommodating and even helping load bags of salt into customer’s cars at the curb. During the previous 37 years Sterlings were in business no one was ever injured because of the skids of rock salt.

In 2009 inspectors found that the second floor was made into an apartment that did not have the required window for light and ventilation or a means of emergency egress. In September of that year a window was added and a new balcony to the alley side of the second floor.

In 2014 Tippecanoe True Value Hardware closed with ownership of the building retained by the Sterlings.

In March of 2022, Wioletta and Adam Bartoszech after remodeling and updating the then 81-year-old building opened Wioletta’s Polish Market. The market features traditional Polish groceries, fresh food, baked goods and hot-to-go carry outs like golobki and bigos. The Bartosechs also cater for special occasions.

In April of 2024, Wioletta and Adam announced they will have outdoor seating so that customers can enjoy picking up food and not having to head somewhere else to eat it.