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Allen-Bradley Clock Tower

Close up of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower, in grayscale. The analogue clock glows, displaying the time at 08.30. The Stars and Stripes flag waves above the top of the tower.
The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower is a four-sided clock that sits on top of the ALLEN-BRADLEY Building (now Rockwell Automation) on the South Side of Milwaukee. Local ARCHITECT Fitzhugh Scott designed the tower. The clockworks were built by Allen-Bradley, which specialized in electrical controls, while the clock faces were created by Super Sky Products in MEQUON.… Read More

Architects

An office room full of the Ferry & Clas firm's workers in their suits and ties. Most of the men sit at their desks and concentrate on their tasks. At least three other people who look like the supervisors seem to oversee the employees' performance. One sits on a chair, and two stand near the workers.
Milwaukee’s built environment reflects the ideas of the architects and builders who designed and constructed the area’s commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. The roots of the profession began in the city’s first decade and flourished in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A proliferation of architectural firms in the twentieth century accounts for Milwaukee’s… Read More

Baird Center (formerly Wisconsin Center)

Long shot of the corner entrance of the Wisconsin Center against the blue sky. Its glass curtain walls and three grand dormer windows are visible. The image shows the other sides of the building. Trees grow on the sidewalk around the building. An intersection is seen in the foreground.
Hoping to revitalize downtown Milwaukee, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce spearheaded the drive in the 1990s to replace the outdated convention hall of the MILWAUKEE EXPOSITION CONVENTION CENTER AND ARENA with a larger meeting space. A team of six firms eventually developed the 189,000 square foot Flemish and German-inspired Midwest Express Center, which opened… Read More

Cemeteries

A page of the 1871 plan of the Forest Home Cemetery shows multiple numbered areas in the complex. The cemetery borders Janesville Plank Road in the northwest, Kilbourn Road in the west, and Loomis Road in the south. The named streets within the cemetery suggest its curvilinear design.
Like all urban areas, early Milwaukee faced many issues when it came to burying the dead. There were concerns with sanitation and the threat of disease, the competition for space with businesses and housing, and the need to properly memorialize those who died. Milwaukee’s early cemeteries had neither the permanence nor the grandeur of its… Read More

City Hall

Panoramic view of the City Hall facade from the South side in grayscale tone. This massive building ornamented with a massive bell tower appears prominently among other buildings in the area. Far below, cars drive and are parked on the side of the surrounding streets.
The Milwaukee City Hall is located on the site of the previous “Market Hall” on the triangular parcel of land between Market Street, Water Street, Wells Street, and Kilbourn Avenue. In 1891 an architectural contest was held to replace the “Market Hall” with a new headquarters for city government. Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb submitted… Read More

Commercial Landscapes

Wide shot of East Water Street showing a rows of commercial buildings ranging from two to four stories. Store signs are displayed in front of each business place. A group of people stands on the porch of the "J.C. Iversen & Co." building. Two horse-drawn vehicles stand by the sidewalk. Two large utility poles also stand in the street next to the sidewalk.
The exchange of goods is fundamental to city life, and the shape of commercial activity in Milwaukee reflects the geographic expansion of the city and the economic, technological, and social patterns framing the city’s development over time. Modern Milwaukee began as a series of competing settlements on the Milwaukee River and grew into a major… Read More

Conservation and Environmentalism

A group of men, women, and children in summer clothes walks toward the Wisconsin Conservation Department exhibit building. The building is one story tall and made with dark wood.
The modern movement toward environmental protection in Milwaukee was rooted in the frontier settlement’s first efforts to control water pollution to protect public health. From this beginning, the dynamic interplay of time, technology, science, commerce, and population growth resulted in a gradual expansion of this narrow focus to the conservation of natural resources, starting with… Read More

Courthouses

Grayscale long shot of the old Milwaukee County Courthouse's facade hidden behind a line of trees. The building's tower soars above the trees. A water fountain is set in front of the courthouse.
Historically courthouses were places for resolving legal and political matters. As community social spaces, they also demonstrated civic pride, serving as symbols of the ideal of American justice. As such the architecture of courthouses reflected their important role in community life. However, over time, courthouses, and later “justice centers,” became more specialized. Modern courthouses tend… Read More

Cream City Brick

Dutch angle shot of a two-story building on a street corner that features Cream City brick exterior walls. The structure has a covered front porch and a front staircase enclosed by balusters. An American flag protrudes from the porch on the far left.
Milwaukee’s nineteenth-century brick-makers fired the local red lacustrine clay, which contains a high content of calcium and magnesium, to produce distinctive, soft golden-yellow bricks. “The Cream City” nickname that attached to Milwaukee in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century suggests the dominance of this creamy-yellow colored brick during the city’s first seven decades. As early as… Read More

Duplex

Side view of a two-and-a-half story duplex in predominantly cream-colored exterior wall. The ground floor has a covered porch supported by four columns. The second floor features a balcony enclosed by balustrades. Each has an identical front door and windows. Landscaping shrubery flanks the front steps.
The duplex, an apartment house with two units, became a popular housing choice in Milwaukee during the late-nineteenth-century period of rapid industrial growth and residential development. By 1911, a study of Milwaukee conducted by the United Kingdom Board of Trade, described it as the city’s most common house-type. Although a few are found in wealthier… Read More

Effigy Mounds

Vintage map of Milwaukee displaying the location of ancient works, including effigy mounds. Black markings drawn on different areas on the map indicate the location of the mounds. Information written on the right side of the map says, "Ancient Works in the Vicinity of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Surveyed 1836-1852 by I. A. Lapham."
Milwaukee was Native American land until the 1830s. The Potawatomi lived in the area in the early 19th century but lost their lands as a result of coerced treaties that forced them to cede the territory to the United States for American settlers. Most of these people were removed west to a reservation in Kansas,… Read More

Eschweiler Buildings

Long shot of the former Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy building. The multiple-story abandoned structure has its windows and doors covered. A barren wide yard and leafless trees are set in front of the building.
The Eschweiler & Eschweiler architectural firm was one of the most prolific in Milwaukee’s history, designing everything from community spaces, private homes, and places of worship, to industrial factories and commercial buildings. Some of their most notable buildings include the MILWAUKEE GAS LIGHT BUILDING, the MILWAUKEE ARENA, the Wisconsin Telephone Co. Building, the Milwaukee County… Read More

Fiserv Forum

Long-shot of the Fiserv Forum exterior showcases its front and side view and the swooping roof. The Milwaukee Bucks monument sign appears next to the facade. A concrete pedestrian area is visible in the foreground.
Opened in 2018, the Fiserv Forum is the home of the Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette University Men’s Basketball, and an array of other sports and entertainment events. It is located at 1111 Vel R. Phillips Avenue, directly north of the site of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, which it replaced as Milwaukee’s primary sports and entertainment… Read More

Gas Company Flame

Night view of a street in Milwaukee showing blue light shining from the weather beacon in the form of a flame over the Wisconsin Gas Company building.
The iconic Gas Company Flame was added on top of the ESCHWEILER-designed WISCONSIN GAS BUILDING in 1956. Standing 21 feet and weighing 4 tons, the beacon provides navigational light for Lake Michigan vessels and indicates the local weather forecast by its color. The flame contained neon and argon tubing, but by spring 2014 was replaced… Read More

Grand Avenue

High-angle shot of the grand John Plankinton Mansion surrounded by manicured lawns and trees. A pathway appears on the left of this sepia-colored image. The path is connected to a large driveway which leads to the house's entrance.
Grand Avenue was an officially designated Milwaukee street from 1876 to 1926. It first developed in the 1850s as Spring Street, where wealthy residents built large estates on the outskirts of the city. Over the successive decades, their mansions emerged as a suburban “gold coast.” By the 1920s, however, that suburban character dissipated as downtown… Read More

Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts

Grayscale long shot of the Helene Zelazo Center building. The two-story elongated structure stands in the background, facing slightly to the left. Tall leafless trees grow on the road verge around the building. Some cars are parked in front of the facade. Streets separated by a median are visible in the foreground.
  The Helene Zelazo Center is a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE (UWM) venue for performing arts. The building was dedicated in 1923 as the second home of Congregation Emanu El (which became CONGREGATION EMANU EL B’NE JESHURUN in 1927), a Jewish synagogue. The building was designed by Robert A. Messmer & Bros., a firm also responsible… Read More

Historic Preservation

Blurry image of historic preservation activists standing near Elizabeth Plankinton mansion while raising protest signs. Three signs are visible in this grayscale image. One that is legible reads "We have enough parking lots."
As the city developed, Milwaukeeans razed, transformed, and replaced outmoded buildings, infrastructure, and other elements of the landscape. Some groups expressed concern that these changes destroyed history and a “sense of place.” They worked to mark, preserve, restore, and repurpose historically significant sites and structures. Milwaukee’s first historic preservation efforts emerged in the late-nineteenth century.… Read More

Industrial Landscapes

A drawing depicts a bird's eye view of the Schlitz Brewery buildings complex standing prominently with chimneys billowing smoke. A couple dozen horse-drawn carts pass by the streets around the buildings.
Throughout the twentieth century, the A.O. Smith manufacturing plant was a site of intense activity. Housed on a sprawling multi-acre, multi-block site on the city’s North Side, A.O. Smith mass-produced automobile frames, turning out 100 million by 1982. Such industrial activity transformed the neighborhood surrounding the plant, as the company, which at its peak employed… Read More

Kettle Moraine

Panoramic view of a portion of Kettle Moraine State Forest from an observation tower made of wood. The green expanse of the forest is visible as far as the eye can see.
The greater Kettle Moraine stretches from Kewanee County south through Walworth County. It was created when the Green Bay and Lake Michigan “lobes” of the Wisconsin Glacier (it had six lobes all together) retreated some 10,000 years ago. The retreating glacier left behind geological indentations, known as kettles, and deposited debris—silt, rocks, and boulders—that produced… Read More

Lake Michigan

Aerial shot of rows of boats moored in the marina in Lake Michigan. In the background is the Milwaukee landscape with buildings on the far right and a long bridge on the far left.
Europeans derived Lake Michigan’s name from the Anishinaabemowin word mishigami, meaning “big lake.” It is the second largest Great Lake by volume and third by area surface; it is the only one located entirely within the United States. Milwaukee’s economic development has been made possible by the Lake’s harbor, which provided protection from storms and… Read More
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