Milwaukee has a long and turbulent history, at least for an American city. From the first time Europeans settled there have been large and often violent divides in the city. These settlers built three dueling settlements (Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker's Point) around what is now Downtown. The two former communities were extremely competitive and created two non-aligning street grids. This is why 1st Street is west of the Milwaukee River and the reason that many of the city's bridges cross the river diagonally (connecting the two grids).
Milwaukee has historically been a major immigrant city. During the early 20th Century, German and Polish immigrants tended to dominate, and the city still strongly identifies with its German heritage. For part of the early 20th century German was even the main language of the city, and German names are still very common.
As waves of immigrants arrived in Milwaukee they tended (and tend) to form communities in specific areas. The different areas of the city are still identified with the ethnic groups that originally populated them. The Near North and Northwest sides were originally German, but are now mainly African American with Hmong enclaves. The Near South side was originally Polish but is now mainly Hispanic. Juneautown was originally mainly populated by English immigrants as well as people from the Eastern U.S.
The city experienced 'white flight' during the 1960's and 70's, creating a large socio-economic divide between the inner city and suburbs. Today the city remains highly segregated with low rates of social and economic mobility within the inner city.
Milwaukee is home to some of America's most instantly recognized corporations such as Miller Brewing and Harley Davidson. Harley holds an enormous celebration on every fifth anniversary attracting riders (and celebrity riders such as Jay Leno) by the millions to Milwaukee each time. The 110th anniversary will be held in 2013.
Milwaukee was once the home to four of the world's largest breweries (Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller), making it the number one beer producing city in the world for many years. Despite the decline in its position as the world's leading beer producer through the loss of three of those breweries, its one remaining major brewery, Miller Brewing Company is a key employer. Miller employs over 2,200 people on Milwaukee's west side. All this beer brewing has earned the city the nickname "Brew City" and its identification with and fondness for the stuff remains strong as ever.
Milwaukee has advertised itself as the "City of Festivals," especially emphasizing an annual summer party along the lakefront called Summerfest. Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as "the largest music festival in the world", Summerfest attracts about a million visitors a year to its twelve stages. Smaller ethnic festivals throughout the summer celebrate many of Milwaukee's ethnic groups.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Milwaukee
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Milwaukee - updated May 2024
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Milwaukee Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
