Milwaukee County Courthouse on Sunday June 21, 2015
Milwaukee County was created in 1834 by the Michigan territorial legislature from unorganized land that had been part of Brown County. The new county was organized in 1835 and occupied most of the southeastern quadrant of the future state of Wisconsin. In 1836 the Wisconsin territorial legislature split Milwaukee County into a number of counties; the current borders of Milwaukee County were established in 1846 when the western part of the county was detached to form Waukesha County.
Milwaukee County is the most populous county in the state of Wisconsin, and the city of Milwaukee, which is the county seat, is the largest city in the state. The name comes from either the Potawatomi or Ojibwe language and means “gathering place by the water.” European settlement began in 1818 when Solomon Juneau established a settlement. In 1846 Juneau’s town combined with two other towns and incorporated as the city of Milwaukee. Apparently the original spelling was “Milwaukie” and the city of Milwaukie Oregon was named after the Wisconsin city before the spelling was changed.
The Milwaukee County courthouse is located at 901 North 9th Street in Milwaukee. The building was completed in 1931 and is Milwaukee County’s third courthouse. East of the courthouse is MacArthur Square, dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur who attended high school in Milwaukee. West of the courthouse is Interstate 43. The Milwaukee City Hall lies to the east of the courthouse, on the other side of the Milwaukee River at 200 East Wells Street.
I visited the courthouse and City Hall on Sunday June 21, 2015. I was in the Milwaukee area for a choir concert and took the opportunity to stop by the courthouse. It had been many years since the last time I had been in downtown Milwaukee, and I was surprised that things I remembered, like the Milwaukee Public Museum were so close to the courthouse. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, so after I had walked around the courthouse and MacArthur Square I drove the half mile or so to the City Hall in order to take some more photos. The City Hall building was built in 1893 and is only a block or so east of the Milwaukee River. The Milwaukee River walk runs along the river, and of course there is the famous (or notorious) statue of “The Fonz” from the TV series “Happy Days.” I did not take a picture of the statue mainly because I didn’t want to wait for my turn; I was not the only one taking photos in downtown Milwaukee that morning!
I have a lot of memories of Milwaukee. My aunt and uncle live in Menomonee Falls in Waukesha County, so we would often drive to the Milwaukee area to visit them and my cousins. While we were there, we would drive into Milwaukee to see the “Domes” and the Zoo and the museums. I also remember going with my father to see the Milwaukee Braves play at the old Milwaukee County Stadium. I think we did this twice, though I really only have clear memories of the last time we did this in 1965. The Braves moved to Atlanta the next year. During my college years I would occasionally go to see the Brewers (the former Seattle Pilots) play at County Stadium, and of course tour the breweries! I remember once a friend and I toured all of the “Big Three” breweries (Miller, Pabst and Schlitz) in one afternoon.
For about 10 years in the 1980s and 1990s I worked for the Astronautics Corporation of America at their Technology Center in Madison. Occasionally I would be “loaned” to the Engineering group at the corporate headquarters in Milwaukee and this would sometimes involve driving to Milwaukee for meetings. The neighborhood around the headquarters building was not very good to say the least. I did not see much of Milwaukee during these trips, mainly because I was totally focused on wrapping up the meeting and getting home as soon as possible.
Milwaukee has changed quite a lot since I was a kid. The Big Three breweries eventually ran into trouble (only Miller seems to have survived) but now there are several smaller breweries that have popped up. County Stadium no longer exists: it was demolished to make way for Miller Park with its retractable roof. I still go to see the Brewers play once or twice a year. Some years I attend German Fest and sing with the combined German choirs at the church service on the Sunday morning of the German Fest weekend.
One of the things that we used to believe was that you could tell where someone was from by how they pronounced “Milwaukee.” If they pronounced the “L”, then they were from outside of Wisconsin. If they pronounced the first syllable as “Ma” instead of “Mil”, then they were from Wisconsin, but not from the Milwaukee area. If they pronounced it like “M’Waukee” then they were from the Milwaukee area.