Milwaukee, WI - February 2011

Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! (Look it up kids.)

That's right, I was in Milwaukee Wisconsin, home of the Brewers. I'm embarrassed to say that I just now figured out why the baseball team has that name. Milwaukee in February is cold. I take that back, it's not cold, it's freezing - literally! Check out the Milwaukee River. It's frozen solid and covered in snow.
Milwaukee is divided by the Milwaukee River. The east side was originally known as Juneautown after Solomon Juneau, who had the trading post there in 1825. The west side of the river was know as Kilbourntown after Byron Kilbourn.

The east side of town, in my opinion, is the core of downtown. It's also flush against Milwaukee Bay, which then becomes Lake Michigan. During my lunch hour I walked around in this part of town and, because of all the tall buildings as well as being right off the lake, the wind was vicious. The temperature was in the high '30's, which would have been tolerable had it not been so windy.

The buildings here are all pretty old. My favorite building was City Hall. It had kind of a Big Ben look.
You could see the top of the building from pretty much anywhere in the city.

During my lunchtime wanderings I saw the original post office for the city. It kind looked like a castle. It's now the Federal Building.
I walked all the way over to the lake. Right on the lake is the Milwaukee Museum of Art. This is kind of an interesting building. It looks a bit like a ship.
They had a Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit going on that would have been nice to see. Behind the museum is Milwaukee Bay. The bay eventually morphs into Lake Michigan.
You can barely see the rock wall in the back but on the map, it looks like you can walk out there. Wouldn't that be cool? The map said 'closed during winter'. That was probably a good thing or you'd have some idiot such as myself walking out there when the wind could pick you up and dump you into the lake. The building in the right of picture is a fancy seafood restaurant.

The west side of the city has more of a suburban feel to me. Maybe it's because the university is on that side. This would be Marquette University. Marquette is a Jesuit Catholic University that was founded in the 1881. It's a really nice campus.
There are markers like this at each end of the campus.

One of things I liked about this part of Milwaukee was it's compactness. I could walk from the lake to the University in about an hour or so - that would be assuming the wind didn't push me down. It was really gusty!

I stayed at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center which was built in 1927. The hotel has been restored and is in a great location.
The lobby is on the second floor - which was kind of strange but the interior of the hotel was beautiful. It was once the tallest building in the city.

The city itself is a German settlement. One of the major players in it's history was Captain Fredrick Pabst. You may recognize the name from such beers at Pabst Blue Ribbon. His name is everywhere. On the campus of Marquette University is the Pabst Mansion. They have tours but I didn't have the time to take one.
The Pabst family moved into their home in 1892 but didn't own it long. Captain Pabst died in 1904 and his wife in 1906. The heirs sold the mansion to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and for the next 67 years it was the home to the Archbishop.
Another structure to bear the name Pabst is the Pabst Theater. The theater, which was built in 1895 and then rebuilt again in 1896 (after it was destroyed by fire) was one of the first all electric theaters and it boasted such things as air conditioning and fireproof construction (that would be after it was rebuilt, I would guess). It still operates as a theater today.

I never did see signs of the Milwaukee from the Laverne & Shirley sitcom. I looked for something that might have been Shotz brewery but I didn't find anything. I couldn't even find a real brewery (except the Yuppie kind like the Rock Bottom Brewery but that doesn't really count, does it?).

Milwaukee should be called the city of churches. I've never seen so many churches in such a small area. On the east side there were the following:
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. This is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee and has been around for about 150 years.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church built in 1884.
The Cathedral Church of All Saints founded in 1857. This is an Episcopal Church - which is a little odd because St. Paul's Episcopal Church (pictured above) is only 1 block away.

On the west side of the river are the following:
St. James Episcopal Church which was built in 1867. This church is a sister church to St. Paul's Episcopal Church (shown above). I'm guessing there are a lot of Episcopalians in Milwaukee.
The Calvary Presbyterian Church. I couldn't tell when this one was built but this is right next to St. James Episcopal Church (pictured above). Then across the highway you have...
Gesu Church. The parish was founded in 1849. It's a Jesuit Parish which took the name Gesu in 1893 to honor the Church of Gesu in Rome. It looks a bit like Notre Dame in Paris. It must be because of the rose window. This church is actually on the Marquette University campus. I wish I'd have thought to go in.

There were several other churches that I didn't even go and see.

One of the other cool things that I heard about but didn't try were the skybridges. A lot of the buildings were connected via skybridge.
This skybridge actually connects buildings over the river. One of the ladies in my client's office was telling me that I probably could have walked most of the way from my hotel to the office without going outside just by using all the skybridges. I thought that was pretty cool. I'm sure it's very useful, especially in the winter.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Milwaukee. I wouldn't mind going back but I think I'd rather wait until Spring.