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Town of Erin

Author: Krista Grensavitch
This 2016 photograph of the Town of Erin shows the combination of rural farms and modern housing that characterize its twenty-first century development.
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

Town of Farmington

Author: Krista Grensavitch
St. Peter's Church, an example of fieldstone construction, was built in 1861.
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

Transportation Policy

Author: Karen W. Moore
Automobiles, a horse and buggy, and trolleys share the road on E. Wisconsin Avenue in the early twentieth century.
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

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

Author: Jenna Himsl
Photograph featuring the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, circa 1885.
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

Ukrainians

Author: Bill Reck
Built in 1874, St. Michael's was originally known as the Salem Evangelical Church (Lutheran). It became home to St. Michael's, Wisconsin's only Ukrainian Roman Catholic Church, in 1953. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
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

Unitarian Universalists

Author: Laura Rominger Porter
Photograph of Milwaukee's First Unitarian Society. Established in 1892, it is the faith's oldest gathering space.
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

United Church of Christ

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

United Migrant Opportunity Services, Inc. (UMOS)

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

United Performing Arts Fund

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

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Author: John H. Schroeder
Aerial photograph of UW-M's campus taken in 1983. Lake Michigan is visible in the background and surrounding neighborhoods are in the foreground.
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

University of Wisconsin-Washington County

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

University of Wisconsin-Waukesha

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

Up North

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

Urban Ecology Center

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

US Bank Center

Author: Catherine Jones
Photograph of the U.S. Bank Center from Lakefront Park taken in 1985.
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

UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena

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

Vel Phillips

Author: Genevieve G. McBride
Renowned for her civil rights activism and historical status as Milwaukee's first alderwoman and African American on the city's Common Council, a younger Vel Phillips sits behind her desk.
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

Veterans

Author: James Marten
1889 photograph of survivors of Co. H, 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry taken during the 23rd national encampment of the G.A.R. in Milwaukee.
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

Victor L. Berger

Author: Michael E. Stevens
Seated portrait of Victor Berger taken in 1905.
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

Vietnamese

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
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