Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and 23rd most populous in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Its estimated 2008 population was 604,477. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with a population of 1,739,497 as of 2007. Milwaukee is also the regional center of the seven county Greater Milwaukee Area, with an estimated population of 2,014,032 as of 2008.
The first Europeans to pass through the area were French missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French-Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846 Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German and other immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades.
Once known almost exclusively as a brewing and manufacturing powerhouse, Milwaukee has taken steps in recent years to reshape its image. In the past decade, major new additions to the city have included the Milwaukee Riverwalk, the Midwest Airlines Center, Miller Park, an internationally renowned addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Pier Wisconsin, as well as major renovations to the Milwaukee Auditorium. In addition, many new skyscrapers, condos, lofts, and apartments have been constructed in neighborhoods on and near the lakefront and riverbanks.
History
Main article: History of Milwaukee, WisconsinThe Milwaukee area was originally inhabited by the Menominee, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk, Potawatomi, Ojibwe (all Algic/Algonquian peoples) and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) (a Siouan people) Native American tribes. French missionaries and traders first passed through the area in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The word "Milwaukee" comes from an Algonquian word Millioke which means "Good/Beautiful/Pleasant Land", Potawatomi language minwaking , or Ojibwe language ominowakiing , "Gathering place ". Early explorers called the Milwaukee River and surrounding lands various names: Melleorki, Milwacky, Mahn-a-waukie, Milwarck, and Milwaucki. For many years, printed records gave the name as "Milwaukie". One story of Milwaukee's name says,
The spelling "Milwaukie" lives on in Milwaukie, Oregon, named after the Wisconsin city in 1847, before the current spelling was universally accepted.
Milwaukee has three "founding fathers", of whom French Canadian Solomon Juneau was first to arrive in the area, in 1818. The Juneaus founded the town called Juneau's Side, or Juneautown, that began attracting more settlers. However, Byron Kilbourn was Juneau's equivalent on the west side of the Milwaukee River. In competition with Juneau, he established Kilbourntown west of the Milwaukee River, and made sure the streets running toward the river did not join with those on the east side. This accounts for the large number of angled bridges that still exist in Milwaukee today. Further, Kilbourn distributed maps of the area which only showed Kilbourntown, implying Juneautown did not exist or that the east side of the river was uninhabited and thus undesirable. The third prominent builder was George H. Walker. He claimed land to the south of the Milwaukee River, along with Juneautown, where he built a log house in 1834. This area grew and became known as Walker's Point.
By the 1840s, the three towns had grown quite a bit, along with their rivalries. There were some intense battles between the towns, mainly Juneautown and Kilbourntown, which culminated with the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845. Following the Bridge War, it was decided the best course of action was to officially unite the towns. So, on January 31, 1846, they combined to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee and elected Solomon Juneau as Milwaukee's first mayor.
German immigration
A great number of German immigrants increased the city's population during the 1840s, and continued to migrate to the area during the following decades. Milwaukee has been called the "Deutsches Athen" (German Athens), and into the twentieth century, there were more German speakers and German-language newspapers than there were English speakers and English-language newspapers in the city. The German heritage and influence in the Milwaukee area is widespread. To this day, the Greater Milwaukee phone book includes more than 40 pages of Schmitts or Schmidts, far more than the pages of Smiths.
During the middle and late 19th century, Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area became the final destination of many German immigrants fleeing the Revolution of 1848 in the various small German states and Austria. In Wisconsin, they found the inexpensive land and the freedoms they sought. Over the next ten years over a million people left Germany and settled in the United States. Some were the intellectual leaders of this rebellion, but many were impoverished Germans who had lost confidence in the government's ability to solve the country's economic problems. Others left because they feared constant political turmoil in Germany. One prosperous innkeeper wrote after arriving in Wisconsin: "I would prefer the civilized, cultured, Germany to America if it were still in its former orderly condition, but as it has turned out recently, and with the threatening prospect for the future of religion and politics, I prefer America. Here I can live a more quiet, and undisturbed life." One journalist commented in the Houston Post that "Germany seems to have lost all of her foreign possessions with the exception of Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati."
The Poles
Although the German presence in Milwaukee after the Civil War remained strong, other groups made their way to the city. Foremost among these were Polish immigrants. The Poles had many reasons for leaving their homeland, mainly poverty and political oppression by Germany (many immigrants came from the German part of Poland). Because Milwaukee offered the Polish immigrants an abundance of low-paying entry level jobs, it became one of the largest Polish settlements in the USA.
St. Stanislaus Catholic Church and the surrounding neighborhood was the center of Polish life in Milwaukee. St. Stanislaus was the first Polish church in urban America. As the Polish community surrounding St. Stanislaus continued to grow, Mitchell Street became known as the "Polish Grand Avenue". As Mitchell Street grew denser, the Polish population started moving south to the Lincoln Village neighborhood, home to the Basilica of St. Josaphat. Other Polish communities started on the east side of Milwaukee and Jones Island, a major commercial fishing center settled mostly by Poles from the Baltic Coast. Today, St. Stanislaus is staffed by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, which intends to restore the historic edifice.
There were about 30,000 Poles in Milwaukee by the late 1880s compared with over 50,000 Germans—a considerable number, placing the group in second place among the ethnic immigrant communities.
Milwaukee has the third largest Polish population in the U.S. at 57,485 (9.6%), behind New York City 213,447 (2.7%) and Chicago 210,421 (7.3%). The city experienced a major increase in its Polish population during the last 10 years. The city also holds America's largest celebration of Polish culture and cuisine at Polish Fest.
Other immigrant groups from Europe
In addition to the Germans and Poles, Milwaukee received large influxes of other European immigrants from Lithuania, Italy, Ireland, and Bohemia, as well as many Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. By 1910, Milwaukee shared the distinction with New York City of having the largest percentage of foreign-born residents in the United States.
African-American migration
Also during this time, a small but burgeoning community of African Americans who emigrated from the south formed a community that would come to be known as Bronzeville. As industry boomed, the African-American influence grew in Milwaukee.
Socialism
During the first half of the twentieth century, Milwaukee was the hub of the socialist movement in the United States. Milwaukee elected three socialist mayors during this time: Emil Seidel (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940), and Frank Zeidler (1948-1960). It remains the only major city in the country to have done so. Often referred to as "Sewer Socialists", the Milwaukee socialists were characterized by their practical approach to government and labor.
Historic neighborhoods
Main article: Neighborhoods of MilwaukeeIn 1892, Whitefish Bay, South Milwaukee, and Wauwatosa were incorporated. They were followed by Cudahy (1895), North Milwaukee (1897) and East Milwaukee, later known as Shorewood, in 1900. In the early 20th century West Allis (1902) and West Milwaukee (1906) w
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