About The Villa Terrace:

Lloyd Raymond Smith was born in 1883. He attended West Division High School in Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, before following his father into the family business — the A.O. Smith Corporation.

Agnes Gram was born in 1893. Lloyd and Agnes married in 1915, two years after Lloyd had become president of A.O. Smith. It is said that Agnes wanted to build a unique house that reflected her love of architecture and design. Some years after returning from a family trip to Italy, she commissioned world-renowned architect David Adler to design a home in the style of an Italian Renaissance villa. Given its lakefront location and Italian inspiration, the home came to be called Sopra Mare (“above the sea” in Italian). Below the Villa, is Milwaukee’s most popular and visited garden, The Renaissance Garden.

Today the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum is a home for the community, events, and fine art. It is known to be the ‘point of harmony’ or ‘genius loci’ of the city. Noted by architectural terms as the spirit of a place, where the soulful essence emanates. With such, the Villa is famously noted and consistently voted as most romantic destination in Milwaukee.