Showing 381-400 of 440 Entries
Author: Krista Grensavitch
Incorporated on January 16, 1846, the Town of Erin is located in the southwest corner of WASHINGTON COUNTY. The Town features one of the highest points in southeastern Wisconsin, an elevation of 1,330 feet above sea level. Perched atop this hill, overlooking hundreds of acres of natural hardwood forest is HOLY HILL, a minor basilica…
Read More
Author: Krista Grensavitch
The Town of Farmington occupies the northeast corner of WASHINGTON COUNTY. It borders Sheboygan County to the north and Ozaukee County to the east. Originally, the Town of Farmington was part of the TOWN OF WEST BEND, though in 1847 an act of the state legislature set off a piece of land, first called Clarence.…
Read More
Author: Karen W. Moore
Milwaukee sits at the confluence of three rivers: the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic on Lake Michigan’s western shore, some eighty miles north of Chicago. This location has always been central to its appeal. The first sailing vessel to dock on its shores arrived in 1778, seventy years before Wisconsin became a state. For centuries, native…
Read More
Author: Jenna Himsl
Standing at the corner of North 9th Street and West Highland Avenue in downtown Milwaukee, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church has been called the “Mother Church of Missouri Synod Lutheranism” in Milwaukee. Designed by German immigrant Frederick Velguth for Milwaukee’s oldest German Lutheran congregation, the Victorian Gothic structure, completed in 1880, is recognized as a municipal…
Read More
Author: Bill Reck
The small Ukrainian-American community in Milwaukee began with immigrants in the early twentieth century and received additional migrants in after World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union. For over a century, religious institutions, affiliated either with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church or the Ukrainian Catholic Church, have provided a place to sustain and…
Read More
Author: Laura Rominger Porter
Unitarianism in Milwaukee dates to 1842 when a contingent of liberal Christians gathered to hear a visiting preacher and proceeded to form the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee. Approximately forty members began meeting in the old city courthouse, and soon erected a church and secured a permanent minister from Massachusetts. As liberal Protestants who privileged…
Read More
Author: John Helt
The United Church of Christ (UCC), founded in 1957, and its predecessor denominations can trace their history to the earliest settlement of greater Milwaukee. The UCC is a twentieth century union of four American Protestant churches: Congregational, Christian, German Evangelical Synod, and German Reformed. Congregational, German Evangelical Synod, and German Reformed congregations gathered in this…
Read More
Author: Joseph A. Rodriguez
In the early 1960s, up to 15,000 migrant workers, mostly Mexican Americans from Texas, were arriving in Wisconsin each year to harvest crops and work in canneries. However, the increasing mechanization of Wisconsin agricultural production, bad weather, and overproduction that resulted in crops being plowed under instead of harvested left some migrants from Texas without…
Read More
Author: Michael Gonzales
The United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) is a collaborative, non-profit organization that has been central to the growth of Milwaukee’s performing arts community. Its mission is to “promote the performing arts” and to provide “financial support of the performing arts in Southeastern Wisconsin.” UPAF has raised more than $250 million since its inception in the…
Read More
Author: John H. Schroeder
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the largest university in Milwaukee and the second largest (behind UW-Madison) in Wisconsin. In 2016, UWM enrolled 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students with a faculty and academic staff of more than 1,600. That same year, UWM was classified as a top-tier, Category 1 Research University by the Carnegie Classification of…
Read More
Author: John Degnitz
The University of Wisconsin-Washington County (UW-WC) is one of thirteen University of Wisconsin colleges, this one primarily serving students from Washington, Ozaukee, Dodge, and Milwaukee counties. Located in West Bend, UW-WC offers courses leading to 250 majors at this freshman/sophomore campus. Collaborative bachelor degree programs with UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, and UW-Milwaukee allow students to obtain four-year…
Read More
Author: Ellen Langill
In the 1960s, Wisconsin experienced a large spike in student enrollments as the baby boomers graduated from high school and looked for advanced educational opportunities. Waukesha County, in particular, saw a tremendous increase in population as families moved west from Milwaukee along the new Interstate 94 corridor. Wisconsin’s flagship university in Madison could not accommodate…
Read More
Author: Barbara Haig
According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, “Up North” is a relative term, more of a state of mind than an actual place. That’s especially true for people from Milwaukee. The Movoto travel guide states, “if a Milwaukeean says they’re headed ‘up north’ for the weekend, it means they’re taking a few days to simply…
Read More
Author: Katie Steffan
The Urban Ecology Center (UEC) is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental awareness in Milwaukee. In 1991 residents of the area around Riverside Park began organizing park cleanups as a way to teach children about the environment, as well as to fight pollution and crime. They soon organized as the UEC and began hosting classes…
Read More
Author: Catherine Jones
The US Bank Center was constructed as the home of the First Wisconsin National Bank. In 1969 the company unveiled plans to move from its headquarters at 735 N. Water Street to a new downtown headquarters building at 777 E. Wisconsin Avenue. When finished in 1973, the surpassed Milwaukee’s CITY HALL as the tallest in…
Read More
Author: Diana Belscamper
The Milwaukee Arena was the city’s major sports and entertainment facility when it opened in 1950. The Arena was home to Milwaukee’s first National Basketball Association team, the Hawks, and hosted events including the Tripoli Shrine Circus, Holiday on Ice, and orchestra concerts. One of the nation’s first venues designed to accommodate television broadcasting, the…
Read More
Author: Genevieve G. McBride
Vel Phillips (1924-2018), Milwaukee’s first alderwoman and the first African American on its Common Council, was born Velvalea Rodgers on the South Side of Milwaukee. While she was a child, her family moved to Bronzeville, where she later established her political career. She graduated from Howard University in 1946, returned to Wisconsin to attend law…
Read More
Author: James Marten
The most remarkable reminder of the presence of veterans in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center (WMC), which was built on the downtown lakefront as a “living memorial” to veterans. Finished in 1957, the War Memorial building is the home of the Milwaukee Art Museum, while the non-profit organization that administers the WMC…
Read More
Author: Michael E. Stevens
Newspaperman, co-founder of the Socialist Party, and first Socialist U.S. Congressman, Victor L. Berger (1860-1929) created the party apparatus that shaped Milwaukee politics for a half century. Berger fought for free speech, opposed war, and advocated for programs ranging from old-age pensions to Milwaukee’s public parks. Berger believed that change would come through evolution and…
Read More
Author: Brian Mueller
Vietnamese refugees arrived in Milwaukee in several “waves” during and after the Vietnam War. In the years following, the Vietnamese who arrived in Milwaukee assimilated into American society. “First wave” refugees, with medical educations and middle- or upper-class backgrounds, came to America before 1975. These refugees used their connections to former American military officers they…
Read More
