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Located in Milwaukee County, just east of Milwaukee’s southernmost portion, the suburban city of Cudahy was named for city founder and meatpacker Patrick Cudahy. Cudahy is bordered by St. Francis to the north, General Mitchell International Airport to the west, Lake Michigan to the east, and Oak Creek and South Milwaukee to the south. The… Read More

The City of Delafield is a residential and resort area centered on Lake Nagawicka in the Lake Country area of Waukesha County. The Town of Delafield was created in 1842, allowing local government functions. Approximately 25 miles west of Milwaukee, Delafield was incorporated as a city in 1959. In 2010 the city’s population was estimated… Read More

Milwaukee’s downtown was anomalous compared to its peer cities over a good part of its historical evolution. This uniqueness was expressed most noticeably in its relatively small size, its weaker commercial function, and its tenuous relationship to the balance of the metropolitan area. Primarily because the city was eclipsed economically by nearby Chicago, Milwaukee rarely… Read More

Eagle, Wisconsin is a community in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, about 35 miles west of Milwaukee. Eagle consists of two legal entities: the Town of Eagle and the Village of Eagle. Although they are legally separate, they are closely linked by shared official services as well as community history and recreational attractions. Like most… Read More

Milwaukee’s East Side is the area roughly bounded by Lake Michigan to the east, the Milwaukee River to the west, the Village of Shorewood (E. Edgewood Avenue) to the north, and E. Ogden Avenue to the south. Covering a small northeast corner of the city representing only about 4% of Milwaukee’s total area, the East… Read More

Franklin originated as a heavily wooded, 36-square-mile frontier bordering Racine County and bisected by the Root River. It was inhabited by the Potawatomi and Menominee Indian tribes until the mid-1830s, when German, Dutch, and Irish immigrants began arriving to clear the land for farming. Milwaukee County put land up for sale at $1.25 per acre,… Read More

Franklin Heights is a neighborhood in the City of Milwaukee between Capitol Drive, Burleigh Street, Twentieth Street, and the railroad tracks that run through the former A.O. Smith industrial complex. While sometimes the area south of Townsend Street is not counted as part of the neighborhood, this entry uses the broader definition. Franklin Heights started… Read More

The Town of Fredonia is located in the northwestern corner of OZAUKEE COUNTY. The Town of Fredonia was created out a portion of the Town of Port Washington in 1847. The Town contains the Village of Fredonia and the unincorporated communities of Waubeka and Little Kohler. The Town of Fredonia was settled by GERMAN and… Read More

Designated in 1836 as Wisconsin Territory’s “Town Nine,” the area that became Germantown was the oldest settlement in WASHINGTON COUNTY. Following the removal of the area’s native POTAWATOMI people in the 1830s, speculator Anthony Wiesner and pioneer Levi Ostrander became the settlement’s first white residents. GERMAN and IRISH immigrants and Yankee migrants dominated this early… Read More

Originally a town within MILWAUKEE COUNTY, Granville is now a neighborhood located on the CITY OF MILWAUKEE’s northwest side. Created in 1840 by the territorial legislature, the Town of Granville extended north from Hampton Avenue to County Line Road and west from 27th Street and Range Line Road to 124th Street. The majority of this… Read More

The federal government developed Greendale in 1936 as part of the Resettlement Administration’s (RA) Greenbelt Towns Program. Some historians, such as Paul Conkin, consider the greenbelt communities built under this program to be one of the most innovative New Deal initiatives. Resettlement Administration head Rexford Guy Tugwell is credited with the idea for these towns.… Read More

Surveyed for settlement in 1836 and created as the Town of Kinnickinnic in 1839, the 36 square mile area between present Greenfield and College Avenues and 27th and 124th Streets was soon renamed “Greenfield,” the title of its post office, in 1841. There is no known association for its name; there are “Greenfields” in many… Read More

The Village of Hales Corners possessed a strong identity from 1836, when the first white settlers arrived, but it did not attain legal independence until 1952. The area that is today Hales Corners was initially part of the Town of Lake and then the Town of Kinnickinnic (renamed Greenfield in 1841), which included present day… Read More

Halyard Park is often referred to as a “suburb within a city.” Despite major changes to the physical landscape caused by freeway construction and urban renewal, Halyard Park is one of the longest-standing, black, middle-class, residential neighborhoods within BRONZEVILLE. It is located between Interstate 43, North Avenue, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, and Walnut… Read More

Milwaukee’s “Harambee” neighborhood is named from the Swahili meaning “pulling together.” The neighborhood is bounded by Interstate-43 to the west, Holton Street to the east, North Avenue to the south, and Keefe Avenue to the north. Its northern boundary is sometimes defined as Capitol Drive, which includes the Williamsburg Heights neighborhood. This entry uses the… Read More

Once a remote trading site along the Rubicon River inhabited by Potawatomi and Menominee peoples, Hartford has evolved over the past two centuries into a bustling center of industry, recreation, and civic engagement. The Town of Hartford was incorporated as the Town of Wright in 1846. The Village of Hartford incorporated in 1871 and became… Read More

Hillside is a neighborhood in the City of Milwaukee. It was named after World War II for the homes that were built literally on the hillside that forms the neighborhood. Its boundaries are traditionally defined as Walnut Street to the north, Fond du Lac Avenue/McKinley Avenue to the south, Interstate 43 to the west, and… Read More

The Historic Third Ward, often known simply as the “Third Ward,” is a neighborhood within the City of Milwaukee. It lies mostly south of Interstate 794, between the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan. In 1984, seventy-one buildings, spanning more than a dozen city blocks, were accepted by the National Register of Historic Places as “The… Read More

In 1959, Mayor FRANK ZEIDLER called a public conference and assembled a group of community activists and researchers to discuss the “Social Problems of the Core of the City.” The group’s final report was issued on April 15, 1960. Titled “Mayor’s Study Committee on Social Problems in the Inner Core Area of the City” but… Read More

Located in southeastern Washington County, and originally 36 square miles, the Town of Jackson incorporated on January 21, 1846. Early settlers of the Town made land entries as early as 1843. The Town experienced rapid settlement; just two years later 149 land entries were made. A majority of the early settlers of the Town of… Read More