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Milorganite is a commercial fertilizer made by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) from the bacterial remains of the wastewater treatment process. Before the twentieth century, Milwaukeeans disposed of sewage in area waterways. After many years of debate over sanitation, the Milwaukee Sewerage Commission was created in 1913 to address the problem. The Commission’s first… Read More

The Milwaukee Art Museum is the largest art museum in Wisconsin. The 341,000 square-foot museum is home to 30,000 works; its world-renowned collections include strengths in “American decorative arts, German Expressionist works, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960.” While the institution’s current manifestation as the Milwaukee Art Museum is relatively new, dating… Read More

The Milwaukee Braves were unique among professional sports franchises. When owner Lou Perini moved his National League baseball club from Boston to Milwaukee in March 1953, the Braves became the first major league ball club to change cities in half a century. The shift initiated a series of westward migrations by teams and provided the… Read More

  Construction began on Milwaukee County Stadium in 1950 with the hope of bringing professional baseball back to Milwaukee, but the stadium ultimately served as a multi-functional entertainment venue in the city’s industrial Menomonee Valley. Its construction was unique among Major League ballparks in two ways: it was the first one to be erected with… Read More

Preceded by the city’s oldest skating rink, the Milwaukee Exposition Building opened at what is now 500 W. Kilbourn Ave. in 1881. Walter Holbrook of E.T. Mix Co. Architects designed the building, which was constructed with Milwaukee brick in the modified Queen Anne style. It was constructed entirely with private funds—when a worker’s strike stalled… Read More

There were not many selective service protests in Milwaukee during the Vietnam War. However, one of the protests that did take place here became famous throughout the country. On September 24, 1968, fourteen men stole tens of thousands of draft cards from the Brumder Building (now the Germania Building) on West Wells Street. They took… Read More

The Milwaukee Leader was a daily socialist newspaper published from December 7, 1911 to May 1942. It was one of three English-language socialist dailies in America. Victor Berger, the paper’s primary editor and inspiration, published several German language newspapers from the 1890s to 1910 and founded the Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Company in 1902. The… Read More

Mayor DANIEL HOAN declared the week of July 16, 1933 the “Milwaukee Homecoming.” Inspired by ethnic festivals he observed on a recent trip to Europe, Hoan transformed the upcoming Elks National Convention of 1933 into a similar gathering in Milwaukee. Convention organizers opened activities to all Milwaukee citizens as well as to the visiting Elks.… Read More