From Pabst Brewing to El Rey supermarkets and Yemeni coffee shops, Milwaukee has been shaped by immigrant communities past and present. Our history shows up in some of our city’s most beloved businesses, festivals and architecture.
Let's explore it together! Our guide for this journey is UWM professor of history Rachel Buff.
We start with the numerous Indigenous peoples who lived here, where the rivers now called the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic converged. So many Native words and tribal names are now part of our state maps: Winnebago, Chippewa and Ashwaubenon, to name a few. Even the name “Milwaukee” is likely derived from an Indigenous word.
But settlers began to leave their mark, too.
“So we have a French and a Métis, a mixed-blood migration, and some English folks coming in in the 18th century as well,” Buff says. “You can see it in Milwaukee’s geography. Like Yankee Hill. There are early, English, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants that are some of the first settlers.”
The Polish flat: About Milwaukee's unique architecture on the south side
Later immigrant communities didn’t just bring their names. They brought their style of architecture and values.
Polish immigrants to Milwaukee began arriving in the 1850s. Homes called "Polish flats" on the south side of the city show their influence.
“Families would pool their resources and lift a small house up and put another floor on it so they would have more space and would be able to save money,” she says. “That is a unique Milwaukee form of architecture that you can see on the south side.”
Buff says the Polish flat comes from immigrant drive and ambition. But it wasn't necessarily well received by German neighbors and city founders.
"[The Polish flat] was received as ‘Well, maybe they’re not like us. Maybe they like living in basements.’ You know, that was the vibe of the early 20th century when immigration restriction was the rage,” Buff says.
Milwaukee earns its name, the "German Athens"
Milwaukee also experienced a massive amount of German immigration from the 1840s through the 1890s.
The city was once dubbed the “German Athens,” referencing the historic Greek city. German immigrants trained in politics became leaders in Milwaukee’s socialist government, while entrepreneurs started breweries and tradesmen sold crafts and built businesses.
Signs of the "German Athens" can still be seen around the city today with former Pabst Brewing buildings and Turner Hall, which was built in 1882 by the Milwaukee Turners, a German-American athletic, cultural, and political association.
“We still see the influence of Germans," Buff says. "But because of the oppression of against Germans under, actually, The Alien Enemies Act, and the suspicion of them, that really is the end of that height of German Milwaukee.”
Spanish-speaking churches welcome Mexican-American families to Milwaukee
After the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Buff explains that Mexican immigrants started moving into Texas and eventually to Wisconsin. She says that the churches on the south side of the city began to open their doors to new arrivals.
“The transition [began] of the south side of Milwaukee, which had been historically Polish. You can sort of see that in the architecture, the churches, [and] the businesses …” she says. “But you have those churches kind of keeping business going by having Spanish-speaking Masses.”
More than 100 years later, Milwaukee’s south side has transformed. Almost 70% of residents on the near south side identify as Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. Supermarkets, festivals, churches, school names and street names now reflect the rich culture of Milwaukee's southern side.
Buff says Milwaukee’s map shows which immigrant communities were allowed to thrive, and those that were left out.
For example, Buff says one reason we don’t have a Chinatown similar to Chicago or New York is because of extreme racism and xenophobia toward Chinese immigrants in the late 1800s.
In 1889, Milwaukeeans even staged protests that ended in riots against Chinese laundrymen.
Immigration is "written into our landscape," Buff says. "She calls it our inheritance."
"It’s why we have the segregation that we have. It’s why we have the ongoing problems that we have. It is structured in. It’s important for us to understand this both because it’s our heritage," Buff says.
Move over Lincoln, here comes Schlitz
In the end, all the groups that came to Milwaukee have made it special. And that sticks out to people who grew up in other parts of the country.
"It’s very different for me as somebody who comes from the East coast, where you have Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center. You have the Yankee names," Buff says. "Here, the names on our high culture places are German."
Today, Buff says she’s excitedly following the opening of new Yemeni coffee shops and the growing Muslim American communities around the city.
To see the contributions of Milwaukee’s immigrant communities past and present, you don’t need to look far.
This story is part of WUWM's series, Making Wisconsin: Our Immigration History. Join us on Lake Effect every day the week of May 12 to understand who our neighbors are and how immigration has shaped the city, state and country.
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