Dutch Hill
In scouring historic maps and newspaper accounts for clues of the settlement surrounding Fond du Lac Avenue at Walnut Street circa 1850, I stumbled on a church: small, wood frame, labeled “PRESBYT’N CHURCH.1 This small religious institution, the Second Holland Presbyterian Church2, was constructed to serve Milwaukee’s early Dutch settlers, and the origination point of the Fond du Lac plank →
Follow the Plank Road
My foray into the history of the City of Milwaukee is inherently a consequence of my interest in the City’s architectural fabric. Without context, a building is largely a misunderstood collaboration of bricks and mortar however pleasing its aesthetics may be. However, aside from the general context of a building, the history of the city—the events, people, politics, movements, infrastructure—these →
A.F. Heuer & Sons
Like many, I’m guilty of neglecting the outer reaches of this fair city. Frankly, my daily existence operates within a two-mile radius of Reservoir Park. However, en route to a destination that I can no longer remember, I embarked along Fond du Lac Avenue to reach Milwaukee’s far northwest side. Traveling along the former plank road, I discovered a wealth →