It took 18 months to build Milwaukee's Arena, which is next to the Auditorium at Kilbourn Ave. and 4th St. But it took two years to acquire land for the site. Does all this sound familiar? The Milwaukee Board of Realtors objected to the building...
The Friday fish fry has been a part of Milwaukee for a long time, but years ago the setting was more often a neighborhood tavern than a fancy restaurant. A sign on the wall at Serio's Seafood Bar, 2405 N. Richards St., said the fish fry there cost...
Hamilton Field (Cudahy, Wis.); Milwaukee County Airport; General Mitchell Field (Milwaukee County, Wis.); Airport terminals -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee County; Airports -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee County; Cudahy (Wis.)
A remodeled farmhouse served as the Milwaukee County Air Terminal in the 1930s. The two story structure housed the administration offices, weather instruments, broadcasting equipment, illumination controls and a restaurant. Milwaukee County was...
Statues of three Grecian ladies looked down from the roof of the Ferdinand Meinecke home at 1203 N. Milwaukee St. (northeast corner of N. Milwaukee and E. Juneau Sts.). A fourth figure was set in a niche on the south wall, and stone vases also...
Hospitals -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; St. Mary's Hospital (Milwaukee, Wis.); Water towers -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Towers -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Lake Drive (Milwaukee, Wis.)
The water tower on Milwaukee's East Side (100 years old this year) is a very familiar landmark, but it's not as easy to recognize the other structure. It is the original St. Mary's Hospital, built in 1858. At that time, it was surrounded by a...
"We're going to have some nasty weather," warned weatherman Howard J. Thompson, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1947, and he didn't know how right he was! Less than 48 hours later, Milwaukee was buried under 18.1 inches of snow. The fall was so thick that...
Third Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Wisconsin Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); Central business districts -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Strauss Building (Milwaukee, Wis.); Princess Theater (Milwaukee, Wis.); Theaters -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Buildings --...
The Strauss Building loomed over the northeast corner of N. 3rd St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. in 1946. Lawton's $18.50 Clothes - "Wisconsin's Largest Clothiers" - was located on the ground floor of the 12 story building, which was built in 1923. The...
Holton Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Holton Street Viaduct (Milwaukee, Wis.); Viaducts -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Bridges -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
The Holton St. viaduct is a familiar part of the East Side Milwaukee landscape, and there are, no doubt, many Milwaukeeans who can recall its dedication ceremonies in 1926. But there aren't too many people who remember its predecessor, this lift...
Milwaukee Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Juneau Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); College Hotel (Milwaukee, Wis.); Carlton Hotel (Milwaukee, Wis.); Milwaukee College -- Buildings; Milwaukee-Downer College -- Buildings; Hotels -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee;...
Milwaukee College was founded in 1848 as the Milwaukee Female Seminary and was reorganized in 1851 largely through the efforts of Catherine Beecher. This Gothic spired building, located on the southeast corner of what is now N. Milwaukee St. and...
Tenth Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Emil Blaskovics Meat Market (Milwaukee, Wis.); Meat industry and trade -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Barosich, Lawrence; Barosich, Mary; Blaskovics, Antonia; Blaskovics, Emil; Schondel, William
Today's high meat prices cause many to think back very fondly to the days when a dollar bought a lot at the butcher shop. It has been many years since numbers like 8, 15 and 17 referred to the cost of meat per pound, but those were some of the...
Things looked a little bleak when this picture was taken in 1949 of the Milwaukee Arena building site, looking northeast from N. 5th St. and W. Kilbourn Ave. If you look closely, you can see the tier levels beginning to rise. Groundbreaking for...
Wisconsin Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); World War, 1939-1945 -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Rationing -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Central business districts -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Warner Theatre (Milwaukee, Wis.); Christmas decorations -- Wisconsin --...
The holiday decorations are different now and streetcar tracks are no longer there, but the look of pre-Christmas in downtown Milwaukee hasn't changed all that much. This picture looking east from N. 3rd onto Wisconsin Ave. was taken Nov....
Safety Building (Milwaukee, Wis.); Public buildings -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Public buildings -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee County; Eighth Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Ninth Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); State Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Bentley Company...
The building originated in a movement for a new police station during the first decade of the century. After prize competition, the city selected Albert Randolph Ross as the architect. When the idea of a joint city-county building to house law...
Sixth Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Lincoln Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); Catholic Church buildings -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Basilica of St. Josaphat (Milwaukee, Wis.); Church buildings -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
"In the history of the world there have never been any ceremonies in any society that can exceed in solemnity and grandeur those of the dedication yesterday of St. Josaphat's church on the South Side." So began the newspaper account of the...
Milwaukee Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Academy of Music (Milwaukee, Wis.); Shubert Theater (Milwaukee, Wis.); Music Hall (Milwaukee, Wis.); Theaters -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
This building on the west side of Milwaukee St., between what is now E. Wisconsin and E. Michigan, was known by various names over the years: the Music Hall, then the Academy of Music, later the Shubert Theater. Built in 1864-'65 at a cost of...
Third Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); Eighth Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Frank Tatera, Grocer (Milwaukee, Wis.); Tatera, Ervin; Tatera, Florence; Tatera, Frank; Grocery trade -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Advertising
"Rinso." "Holsum Bread." "Free 'American Family Soap' - Bring Coupons Here." These were just a few of the signs in Frank Tatera's grocery story at 1025 Third Ave. (later 2401 S. 8th St.) in 1929. Many shoppers today - even young ones - remember...
This was the Milwaukee Arena - well 95% of it - in a "work in progress" photo taken March 17, 1950. On that date, Alexander Eschweiler Jr., architect of the Auditorium Board, reported that the interior would be finished in time for dedication...
Bridges -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Wisconsin Avenue (Milwaukee, Wis.); Water Street (Milwaukee, Wis.); Horse-drawn vehicles; Streets -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Grand Avenue Bridge (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
The wooden swing bridge at Wisconsin-Grand Avs. looked like this (from the east) in the late 1870's. A new iron swing bridge, fabricated in the North Chicago Rolling Mills in Bay View, went up in 1881 and occupied this site for 20 years. Over its...
These students in a shoe bottoming class were bent over their work when the photographer came around the Milwaukee Vocational School in 1946. Signs and posters on the walls reminded them of the fine points about both feet and shoe construction. ...
Milwaukee Auditorium (Milwaukee, Wis.); Auditoriums -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Public buildings -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Arts facilities -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Centers for the performing arts -- Wisconsin -- Milwaukee; Exhibition buildings --...
This photograph is from a 1912 flyer touting the virtues of the then three year old Milwaukee Auditorium. It describes the main hall as one that could be "cleared for exhibition purposes" with floor space of 225 feet long, 100 feet wide and 65...
