Conrad Schmitt Studios

Conrad Schmitt Studios has been restoring decorative interiors since Conrad Schmitt opened the business in Milwaukee in 1889. The studio moved to 2405 S. 162nd Street in New Berlin, Wisconsin in 1973 and works across decorative painting and restoration, stained glass and architectural art glass, mural restoration, ornamental plaster and scagliola, historic paint analysis, statuary and sculpture restoration, interior renderings and consulting. It holds a patent on the Leptat glass-etching technique. On the Minnesota State Capitol restoration the studio handled murals, decorative plaster and painting, work that included returning 1905 stencil patterns and colours and gilding in 23-carat leaf. Other jobs include the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis.

The studio has outlived the family that named it. Conrad Schmitt, son of Bavarian immigrants, founded the business in Milwaukee in 1889 and it stayed in the Schmitt family until 1953, when a long-time employee, Bernard O. Gruenke, bought it. The third generation of the Gruenke family owns and operates it today, with Gunar Gruenke and Heidi Gruenke Emery taking leadership in 2010.

Gruenke’s own contribution to American glass was substantial. Inspired by European artists, he created the first dalle de verre – slab glass – window in the United States, and in 1973 he and Bernard E. Gruenke patented the Leptat etching technique.

On the conservation side the studio has handled glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany, John LaFarge, Thomas O’Shaughnessy, F.X. Zettler and Mayer of Munich. On the architectural side it has restored theatres by Rapp & Rapp, John Eberson, C. Howard Crane and Thomas Lamb, and buildings by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Its 1975 restoration of the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee is described as one of the first major milestones in the movement to save America’s historic theatres.

The ecclesiastical record goes back to the founder: during Conrad Schmitt’s own lifetime the firm worked at 33 Catholic cathedrals across the country. More recent credits include the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame and the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

The New Berlin building is laid out for the work. Production occupies a single open room of 110 by 100 feet with over 2,100 square feet of table-top surface and more than 3,000 square feet of additional work space; a second level holds over 5,000 square feet for professional services and another 5,000-plus for the art and technology centre.

The studio also claims one of the largest glass inventories in the country – antique, rolled and imported glass, original Tiffany Studios stock and hand-made jewels. Sector coverage runs across basilicas, cathedrals, churches and synagogues, theatres, train stations, hotels, universities, state capitols and government buildings.