Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has always been one to do his own thing.

And he's doing it again with his plans to tear down a historic mansion at 3534 N. Lake Drive in Shorewood — over the objections of the family that sold him the house late last year for $2.6 million.

"This was not shared with us in any way," said Sarah Hambrook, whose parents, George W. and J. Ann Hambrook, moved out Dec. 31 after Abele purchased the 9,762-square-foot home on a 2.5-acre site along Lake Michigan.

"We are hoping there is something we can do to stop it," Sarah Hambrook continued. "This is a priceless Milwaukee landmark."

In a text message, Abele — the son of a Boston billionaire — defended his decision to take a wrecking ball to the mansion and replace it with his own.

"My fiancé, Jennifer (Gonda), and I love the neighborhood," said Abele, who got engaged to the former Milwaukee city lobbyist earlier this month. "That's why we're committed to a design that respects and honors it."

Shorewood Village Manager Rebecca Ewald said Abele submitted his application for a demolition permit Thursday. The application does not provide any details on the house he plans to build on the site. Northworks Architects will design it.

"I don’t have a forecast on the outcome of the permit at this time," Ewald said.

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Bart Griepentrog, Shorewood's planning director, said his staff will review Abele's application to make sure it is complete. Then the Shorewood Design Review Board will evaluate and vote on the proposal.

Griepentrog said there will be no public hearing on the matter.

Robert Dean, head of the Shorewood Historical Society, said the house is considered an extremely important residence in his community. The property was advertised last year as having eight bedrooms, five full bathrooms and a four-car garage

"This is a bombshell," Dean said of the demolition permit application. "I don't think this is going to fly well in Shorewood."

Built in 1927, the residence is known as the Charles and Laura Albright House, for the original owners of the property. The Mediterranean Revival mansion was designed by the noted architect Alexander C. Eschweiler, who was responsible for many landmark Milwaukee buildings and mansions.

Former Journal Sentinel architecture critic Whitney Gould once wrote of Eschweiler, "So powerful was his influence that even today, ‘living in an Eschweiler’ is almost akin to owning a Rembrandt.”

While often described as historic, the house is not listed with the National Register for Historic Places or the National Historic Landmarks Program, meaning it lacks the protections against demolition that other important buildings have.

"No designations, as far as I know," said Win Thrall, a historian who has done extensive research on the Eschweiler buildings, including the Albright House.

A deconstruction team from Habitat for Humanity began work this week at the Abele house, removing items from the mansion and putting them up for sale at its ReStore in Wauwatosa.

"Sooooo excited about this!!!" announced the Habitat's Facebook page on Tuesday. "Thanks to a generous donor, our Deconstruction Services team is salvaging fabulous items from this 1920s mansion tomorrow!!!"

Among the items already up for sale are iron railings, lights, cabinets, registers and doors.

Habitat officials are declining to say the items are coming from Abele's house, but Shorewood residents were able to figure that out from the pictures posted on the Facebook page.

"Whoever the owners are, they’re Philistines for buying a historical gem only to dismantle it," wrote one person in response to the Habitat posting.

In his statement, Abele said he loves the work that Habitat does: "We wanted to make sure that they could get as much out of the deconstruction process to help their work as possible."

The Shorewood house is Abele's third property in the Milwaukee area

Abele lives in two adjacent condominiums at the Moderne, 1141 N. Old World Third St. Those condos, on the 29th floor, total around 7,400 square feet and have a combined assessed value of $3.25 million.

He also still owns his former Milwaukee home, a mansion at 3319 N. Lake Drive. It's assessed at $2.6 million.

Dean said people in Shorewood were excited when Abele announced that he was buying the mansion.

"We were happy to have him as a neighbor in the village," Dean said.

But all of that has changed.

Abele's application indicates that he plans to pay $40,000 to Barenz Builders of Germantown to raze the house, the guest house, a fountain, patios and walkways behind the house and retaining walls. The driveways will remain.

In place of the house, the contractor will put "fill material and provide flush, walkable top surface." The retaining walls along the lake will be replaced with "new erosion control wattles along the bluff slope."

Sarah Hambrook said her family is "heartbroken" by the news that Abele would be tearing down the house. Had her parents known what he was planning to do, she said, "I could not imagine" them selling the house to him.

Her family bought the mansion in December 1985, becoming the fourth family to own the property. Her parents moved out after 33 years.

Hambrook, who lives in Whitefish Bay, said there are a number of features in the house that cannot be replaced.

One room, she said, is made of solid, hand-carved Mahogany. The house also features an original Aeolian Co. organ — which is not working — along with pipes in the basement and attic. One bathroom has hand-painted Italian marble.

In addition, the mansion has three safes, one for wine, another for furs and a third for china. It also features a wood-paneled living room with a large natural fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook patios and mature grounds.

"It is so upsetting for us to see items from our cherished house out of context," she said of the furniture advertised on Habitat for Humanity's Facebook page. "You could never rebuild this house."

But Hambrook said it is going to be hard to try to stop the deep-pocked Abele from moving ahead with his plans.

Dean agreed.

"I don't know if there's much we can do."

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.