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The Village of Newburg was incorporated in 1973 and spans both Washington and Ozaukee counties, though a majority of the land area and population lies within Washington County. Incorporated with a population of just 634 residents, the Village of Newburg was formed out of parcels of land from the TOWN OF SAUKVILLE in Ozaukee County… Read More

North Prairie is a village in WAUKESHA COUNTY, about thirty-three miles southwest of Milwaukee. It is surrounded by EAGLE, MUKWONAGO, GENESEE, and OTTAWA. In the nineteenth century, North Prairie was an unincorporated village in the Town of Genesee. Three prospectors from Mukwonago—Thomas Coats, William Garton, and Thomas Sugden—settled and named the village in 1836. Within… Read More

Oconomowoc Lake is a village in WAUKESHA COUNTY, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. The village completely surrounds the large lake it is named after, which is the village’s focal point. Originally part of the Towns of SUMMIT and OCONOMOWOC, the community came into being in the early twentieth century. Like the nearby village of… Read More

The WAUKESHA COUNTY Village of Pewaukee is located approximately twenty miles west of Milwaukee on Pewaukee Lake and is bisected by the Pewaukee River. As early as 1817, white merchants began trading for shells, furs, and other goods with the Native Potawatomi, Menomonee, Sauk, and Winnebago people using the area to camp, hunt, and fish;… Read More

Richfield is a village in south-central WASHINGTON COUNTY. In its early history, the future Village of Richfield was part of the Town 9, Range 19 survey township, which was the standard size of 36 square miles. This township contained farmland and several small hamlets, including Colgate, Hubertus, Lake Five, Plat, Pleasant Hill, and Richfield. The… Read More

River Hills is a suburb of Milwaukee. It is named for the Milwaukee River, which runs through the western part of the community, and for its rolling terrain. It is considered part of the North Shore, though it is not actually on the shore of Lake Michigan. River Hills was incorporated as a village in… Read More

Located approximately thirty miles northwest of Milwaukee between Highway 41 and the Pike Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, the WASHINGTON COUNTY Village of Slinger has blended agricultural production and heavy manufacturing with community engagement since the late 1840s. Officially incorporated as Schleisingerville in 1869, the village’s population rose slowly through its first… Read More

The Village of Summit is a rural community in the LAKE COUNTRY area of WAUKESHA COUNTY, about 30 miles west of MILWAUKEE. It is bordered by the cities of OCONOMOWOC and DELAFIELD, the villages of OCONOMOWOC LAKE and DOUSMAN, and the towns of OTTAWA, Delafield, and Oconomowoc. A town for most of its history, the… Read More

The Village of Sussex, the second most populous village in WAUKESHA COUNTY, is about twenty miles northwest of Milwaukee. The area’s early residents settled a village within the Town of LISBON in 1842. Their origins in Sussex, England, gave rise to the village’s nickname as “that English Settlement.” Villagers maintained English style and custom until… Read More

The Village of Thiensville is a small and primarily residential area that is completely surrounded by the City of MEQUON. The village is located along the Milwaukee River in OZAUKEE COUNTY, approximately nineteen miles northwest of downtown Milwaukee. Incorporated in 1910, the village occupies 1.1 square miles. Its estimated 2013 population was 3,235. German settlers… Read More

The Village of Wales emerged out of a settlement of WELSH immigrants in western WAUKESHA COUNTY. The first Welsh immigrant, John Hughes, arrived in 1840. Hughes and the Welshmen who followed him established farms which produced wheat, a vital cash crop that was sold and processed in Milwaukee. As intensive cultivation of wheat quickly exhausted… Read More

The Visiting Nurse Association of Milwaukee originated in 1906 when Milwaukee businesswoman Sarah Boyd hired Maude Tompkins, a nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago, to live in her home and provide free health care to nearby low-income residents. In 1907 Boyd, Mariette Tweedy, and other civic leaders incorporated the Visiting Nurse Association of… Read More

Wisconsin’s organized system of vocational education began in 1911. By 2016, it consisted of sixteen technical colleges and forty-nine campuses under the mantle of the Wisconsin Technical College System. It offers more than four hundred programs designed to train students to enter the workplace, and it is especially known for its offerings centering on manufacturing… Read More

Milwaukee attracted national attention, beginning in 1990, when it became the first city in the nation where elementary and high school students could enroll in private schools, using public money to support their education. The Wisconsin legislature had approved a law, signed by Governor Tommy G. Thompson, which allowed private school “vouchers.” Over the next… Read More

In the 1830s and the 1840s, Virginian George Walker filed, lost, and reacquired a land claim for 160 acres bordered by the Milwaukee and Menomonee Rivers and the contemporary Greenfield Avenue and Sixteenth Street (S. Cesar Chavez Drive). Milwaukee’s two other original settlements of Juneautown and Kilbourntown soon joined with Walker’s Point to form the… Read More

The Walker’s Point Center for the Arts (WPCA), founded in 1987, welcomes both cutting-edge works and visual art focused the traditions of the neighborhood’s Latin American residents. The Center is situated on the city’s south side at 839 West 5th Street. It was the brainchild of a mother-son team—Steven and Phyllis P. Chicorel—who wished to… Read More

Walworth County is a county in southeastern Wisconsin, comprising approximately 555.1 square miles, with a population of 102,228 according to the 2010 United States census. Elkhorn, the county seat, is approximately 41 miles southwest of the City of Milwaukee. Walworth County borders the State of Illinois, and Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha, Jefferson, and Rock Counties in… Read More

The United States has fought three major wars since Milwaukee became a city. Milwaukee’s wartime history reflects its evolution from a frontier town to an industrial center, highlights the city’s changing political priorities and gender roles, and provides a case study of the stresses and strains war has put on American cities since the mid-nineteenth… Read More

Present-day Washington County borders MILWAUKEE and WAUKESHA counties to the south, OZAUKEE COUNTY to the east, Dodge County to the west, and Fond du Lac and SHEBOYGAN counties to the north. The area was under the legal jurisdiction of Milwaukee County until 1839. After separating from Milwaukee County, Washington included land that is now part… Read More

Although the neighborhood that is now Washington Heights has not always been called such, it has long been a distinctive part of the Milwaukee area. Bounded by Wisconsin Highway 175 (formerly U. S. Highway 41) on the east, North Avenue on the North, 60th street on the west, and Vliet Street on the South, this… Read More