The start of the Wauwatosa Curling Club’s upcoming season, slated to begin next month, is in jeopardy after its newly renovated facility in Hart Park sustained heavy damage during during this summer’s flash floods.
A major $5.2 million upgrade of the Muellner Building – a 1940s-era structure on the banks of the Menomonee River that’s home to the Curling Club and the Wauwatosa Senior Center – began at the conclusion of the 2024 season, just after the club agreed to a new 30-year lease with the city of Wauwatosa for the space. The Curling Club raised $1.5 million in support of the project, which included replacing the icehouse floor, repairing the roof and upgrading warming rooms.
“The amount of rain we got was pretty substantial, and the club room downstairs took the biggest hit of all,” Wauwatosa Curling Club representative Dave Traut said. “It was pretty much water, as far as we can tell, to the ceiling in the basement.”
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During the heavy rains Aug. 9-10, water from the river surged into the building, destroying the lower-level clubroom, locker room, kitchen and bar. A large equipment storage area on the main level became inundated with fast-moving water, leading to the loss of numerous pieces of curling equipment.
The good news is that the renovated main floor sustained only minor damage; some drywall will need to be replaced. “There was very minor impact to the renovations,” Traut said.
Season May Be Delayed; Club ‘Hopeful’
A major problem, however, is that the building has been without power since the flooding hit.
“We usually start making ice in early October and typically we’re able to play by the 20th or so,” Traut said. “The one thing that’s a big question mark right now is our compressor. The ice plant that moves all the cooling liquid through the pipes in the concrete floor is in an annex but the building’s power got completely knocked out so we haven’t been able to turn on the compressor and test it.”
The compressor is about 9 years old and is made to be waterproof under normal circumstances, he added. If the compressor doesn’t work and a quick repair can be made, the curling season will be delayed.
“If we have to replace the compressor, that would be more substantial and could delay things into 2026 or put the whole season in jeopardy,” Traut said. “We just don’t know. We’re hopeful.”
Traut and his fellow curlers had grave concerns that power restoration to the building could take weeks, possibly months.
But there appears to be a light on at the end of the tunnel.
Eva Ennamorato, communications manager for the city of Wauwatosa, told Milwaukee Magazine this week that power could soon be restored to the Muellner Building.
“We’re very close to restoring power,” she said. “I don’t have an exact date but we’re talking a week, maybe two weeks. We’re very close. We’re very confident that the Curling Club will be able to start making ice (in October). The upstairs portion of the center looks like it’s going to be fine. Obviously, the downstairs area has extensive damage but we’re considering that a separate project.”
The damage to the club’s lower level is extensive, Traut confirmed.
“It raised up our keg fridge that was under the bar and lifted the countertop buffet by the kitchen area and floated that around,” Traut said. “There were tables and chairs, kitchen equipment, lockers and computers that were damaged. Where we’re at now is that we pretty much have to gut the entire basement.”
The Wauwatosa Curling Club started in 1921 in a shed that was part of Stickney Field Club on Stickney Avenue, just south of where Wauwatosa City Hall now stands. In 1925, the shed was moved to what is now Hart Park and play continued there until 1941. The club, which now has about 300 members, then moved to the Muellner Building, where it has remained.
In the days after the flood, some members of the club were able to enter the building to retrieve trophies, plaques, photos and other memorabilia. Since then, members have been blocked from re-entering the building because asbestos was found in flood-damaged drywall.
“It hadn’t been a problem because the asbestos had been completely encased in the drywall until the flood let it loose,” Traut said. “So, now we can’t get back into the space.”
Damage to the center is estimated at about $50,000, a figure Traut described as “on the conservative side.”
Last year’s renovation project didn’t include the facility’s lower level. “We were eventually going to do that, but I guess we’re going to do that now, for sure,” Traut said.
The curling center’s stones, the heavy, polished pieces of granite also known as rocks that players slide across a sheet of ice toward a target, had been kept in a storage annex just west of the ice room but appear to be salvageable, Traut said.
“They were covered in mud and silt and whatever else from the river, but we’ll clean those off and as long as they are bone dry, they should be just fine,” Traut said.
While repairs and renovations are made to the building’s lower level, the club plans to move its spot for socializing – a key element of curling culture – to the Firefly Room on the main floor of Muellner Building.
A 1998 flood also caused damage to the building’s lower level, Traut noted. “But there was nowhere near this much water,” he said.
Fundraising Underway
The club set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to repair the clubroom. As of Friday morning, the club had raised $22,576 toward its goal of $24,000.
A post on the GoFundMe page states:
“In just a few hours, the Menomonee River stole what took us decades to build. It is with deep sadness that we share this update with our friends and family in both Tosa and the larger curling community. Our beloved lower-level clubroom, where generations of curlers celebrated victories, shared laughs, and built lifelong friendships, was filled to the ceiling with floodwater. The August 2025 floods didn’t just damage our building. They struck at the very heart of our club.”
“We’ve had amazing support from friends, family members and curlers in the club and curlers from around the country who have curled here or heard about it,” Traut said.
Wisconsin is a hotbed for curling, with nearly 30 clubs, the most in the country, although Minnesota technically boasts the highest number of curlers. The Milwaukee Curling Club, located in Cedarburg, is the country’s oldest.
USA Curling, the national governing body of the sport, has also spread the word about the damages to the Wauwatosa Curling Club’s facility, Traut said.
“The curling community has been absolutely stellar in their support,” he said.
Repairs in Hart Park Area Continuing
Early August flooding wreaked havoc on several Milwaukee area communities, with Wauwatosa among the hardest hit, especially in and around Hart Park, the 52-acre gathering space in the heart of the city.
The Hart Park stadium, which seats nearly 5,000 for high school football, soccer and other sporting events, sustained extensive damage as water rippled the artificial turf field and buckled portions of the track that surrounds the field. A large sinkhole, which remains blocked off, developed in the roadway leading into the park along the eastern edge of the stadium.
Ennamorato said at this point it’s unclear if the turf or track are salvageable. “We don’t have any official damage estimates yet because what needs to happen first is that we’re going to work with a contractor to take off the turf to see if the drainage area underneath the field needs to be replaced,” she said. “We don’t know the extent of the damage yet.”
In the meantime, the stadium will be closed for the long term, Ennamorato said. The stadium’s closure has forced Wauwatosa East and Marquette University high schools to move their outdoor sporting events to other locations.
The playground and softball field at Hart Park also sustained significant damage and will also be subjected to a long-term closure, she added. Courts used for pickleball, tennis and volleyball have reopened. The Rotary performance stage and green space at the east end of Hart Park have reopened, but the park isn’t equipped to handle large-scale events at this point because a variety of park assets, like staff vehicles and trash containers, were damaged.
That area of the park is the site Tosa Tonight, the summer concert series, and the annual HartFest.
“We’re not talking about 2026 yet,” Ennamorato said. “We’ll see how the next several months play out.”
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he had approved $29.8 million in federal flood relief The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the funds are directed to “affected individuals in Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties.” Applicants may use the money for temporary housing and home repairs as well as “low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and families recover from the effects of the disaster.”
