Frank Zupanchich, date unknown.
According to the Wright's Milwaukee City Directory, Frank Zupanchich purchased the tavern in 1931. However, during that year and the next, due to Prohibition, he is "listed" as selling only soft drinks but in reality he was selling booze from the back door, which continued until the end of Prohibition.
Uncle Johnny Penne behind the bar, circa: unknown.
By 1932 Frank has married Mary Ann Penne (my grandmother's only sister) and by March 1933 FDR signs the Beer-Wine Revenue Act and "Frank & Mary's Place", a legal tavern is born.
Penne's Haven, front to back: Wanda, Johnny, my Grandma Anne Hiller, unknown man. Circa 1950's.
Unbeknownst to Frank, the purchase of this property not only provided a home (there were living quarters attached) and a social circle for many members of my grandmother's family but more importantly it provided them with employment. Beginning around 1933 the whole Pene Family relocated from Eveleth, Minnesota to Milwaukee, beginning with my grandma, Anne and her sister, Mary and ending with their parents Anton and Johanna who arrived in 1941. They lived a number of years at the tavern with Frank and Mary before moving with them to a new home at 3921 W. Greenfield. Both my great grandparents were hard workers and even in their golden years were earning their keep. Throughout the years, my grandmother Anne and her brothers Al, Louis and John all worked the tavern as well. It's also where my grandmother met her husband, Don Hiller. Eventually, Al and Louis found other employment and John was drafted in WWII, however, off and on all three worked as bartenders.
Some celebration at Penne's Haven, circa 1960's. Wanda is behind the bar, my Grandpa Hiller is in a suit and my mother next to him in a white coat.
Johnny returned from the war in December, 1945. In trying to recreate a timeline, I am taking a guess that sometime around between 1946 and 1950 Frank sold the tavern to his brother-in-law, Johnny who renamed it "Penne's Haven". Johnny and Wanda were married in 1950 and lived and worked at the tavern, 1501 W. Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, full time. My mother and aunt both remember walking to Uncle Johnny and Auntie Wanda's tavern on Saturday mornings to help clean sea crabs which were then sold for a quarter that evening. This would make three generations working at the tavern.
When my parents would bring us to the tavern for a visit, I remember not ever wanting to leave. I loved that place and thought my great uncle and aunt had the best life ever, but I was just a child. Now I know they both worked long hours which is probably why they also lived where they worked. When we visited, I would help Uncle Johnny load empty beer bottles into the old thick cardboard beer cases which we then stacked in the garage. The kegs were kept in the basement, loaded down from a trapdoor and ramp on the sidewalk above, however I don't recall helping with the kegs, only the bottles.
The tavern was sold before 1977 which was when Wanda died of cancer. Johnny couldn't work and drive her to her chemotherapy appointments, something he continued to do for other patients even after Wanda's death.
When Johnny died in 2009, I was given a box of his old home movies, some of which I have digitized. The clip here is dated 1947 and titled "Hard Time Party" - I have no idea why. As you watch, look for a man in a straw hat, that's my Grandpa Don Hiller and in front of him, my Grandma Anne (she has a red flower in her hair). Mary Zupanchich, wearing a traditional Slovenian dress like my grandmother, can be seen in the middle of the film and toward the end where she starts to polka with another woman. I can also see quick glimpses of my two of my grandma's brothers but they are hard to point out.
I still love taverns, the smell of beer-stale or otherwise and remembering all the fun I had at Penne's Haven!
Special thanks to Barbara (Hiller) Atwell and Mary Ann (Hiller) Boschke for their recollections and my husband Ray for helping me with an historical timeline.
News stories about John Penne
and
For more interesting reading about Milwaukee during and after Prohibition read "The Day Beer Returned to Milwaukee" in Austin Frederick's blog-Making History Since 1990
https://austinfrederick.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/the-day-beer-returned-to-milwaukee/
Citation:
Music in clip by Kevin MacLeod, "Four Beers Polka", Creative Commons License Deed
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer–Wine_Revenue_Act
Ancestry.com Wright's Milwaukee City Directories, 1929-1950