HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC
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Mission Statement
Historic Milwaukee is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of and commitment to Milwaukee’s history, architecture, and the preservation of the built environment through tours and educational programs.
About This Cause
Historic Milwaukee, Inc. draws on more than four decades of programming expertise to deliver engaging and informative tours and other educational programming on Milwaukee's history and architecture. Our tours are delivered in variety of formats: walking tours, specialized tours; step-on tour guides for coach buses and student tours. Historic Milwaukee, Inc. is the only nonprofit provider of these educational and historic tours in Milwaukee. Walking tours Our long-standing walking tours explore Milwaukee's unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Regular tours in 2019 include Bay View, Brady Street, Downtown, North Point Mansions, the River Walk, the Third Ward and the Downtown Sculpture tour. We also launched a new Hop Streetcar tour in February, marking our first tour to use public transit as part of the tour experience. We also invested in our first audio headphone system for the Hop tour. This new tour has sold out every Saturday since it began in February. We are adding a second weekly tour starting in late May to meet demand. Special tour topics this past year included Yankee Hill, South Side Churches, Walker’s Point, Wisconsin Avenue churches, Harambee, Menomonee Valley bike tour and our fall themed Gargoyles and Forest Home Cemetery tours. Historic Milwaukee, Inc. has researched and developed more than 35 specialized tours that are offered on a rotating basis each year. We continually seek out feedback from our members and tour participants to improve our tours. Twenty-one prospective guides completed guide training this spring. These new volunteers learned about architectural styles, Milwaukee history from John Gurda and current and upcoming development projects from city of Milwaukee employees. New guides will be paired with a mentor and all hope to deliver at least five tours this summer. Student Tours Student tours are tailored for third through fifth grade curriculum and starts with a guided tour of downtown that focuses on local history, civic government, architecture and geography. The program includes a classroom curriculum packet that continues the learning experience. Our student tour guides are volunteers who have completed a thorough guide-training course. Many are retired educators who continue to share their love of teaching with Milwaukee's children. The tours are especially appealing to MPS and other schools with limited field trip budgets; they are priced at $5 per student for the tour and curriculum packet. Book Talks, Lectures and Classes Since moving to our new location in 2016, we have expanded our educational programs to include book talks and lectures by local authors, historians and experts. Book talks are very popular and often fill to capacity. Talks schedule for summer 2019 include recently published books “Milwaukee County’s Oak Leaf Trail: A History” and “From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City.” Other talks and lectures feature Milwaukee’s industrial heritage, the city’s religious architecture, terra cotta tile and the civil rights movement in Milwaukee. We will again offer our popular house history classes in 2019. These classes, taught by volunteer retired librarians, guide homeowners through the various resources in Milwaukee to help research a property. The classes were started in 2017 as a pilot and, based on the success, have been expanded to be offered at last four times per year. In 2018, we began a series of classes that allow participants to learn about a Milwaukee landmark and construct the building out of Legos. Past classes have featured the Gas Light building and the War Memorial. Classes are led by local architects and include a history of the building, information on the architect, and when possible, a tour of the space. New in 2019, we will be offering a class that teaches people how to nominate a building or home for local historic designation. The class will also impart the specific details of local vs national (National Register of Historic Places) designation. The first class is set for May 27 and more will be scheduled later this year. Spaces & Traces Historic Milwaukee is also well known for presenting the Spaces & Traces annual neighborhood open house. Since 1981, more than 41,000 tour goers have toured hundreds of historic homes, churches and businesses in Milwaukee's richly textured neighborhoods. Tour attendees have been educated about the "historical traces" of areas as varied as the Third Ward, Yankee Hill, Lincoln Avenue, Bay View, Rufus King, Newberry Boulevard, Sherman Park, and Story Hill. The 2019 Spaces & Traces took place May 11th in the Wauwatosa Highlands neighborhood and drew more than 1,200 attendees. It featured lectures on the history of the Pabst farm, which become the Highlands subdivision, and Cyril Colnik ironwork. The 2020 Spaces & Traces event is set for May 16 and will feature the neighborhoods of Riverwest and Harambee. Doors Open Milwaukee Doors Open Milwaukee is a two-day public celebration of Milwaukee’s art, architecture, culture and history. This premier event offers behind the scenes tours of more than 160 buildings throughout Milwaukee’s downtown and diverse neighborhoods. Doors Open also offers lectures and in-depth tours featuring prominent local artists, architects, historians, and community leaders. The program is FREE, making this a uniquely inclusive event, accessible to families, seniors and individuals, regardless of income level. This event was a finalist for a 2016 MANDI award and won the people’s choice award. The eighth annual Doors Open Milwaukee, held on September 22-23, attracted more than 31,700 attendees, making it our most attended Doors Open event. The new Northwestern Mutual building has more than 14,000 visitors to the 32nd floor; a record for a single building. Other highlights include: • The Martin Luther King Jr. Drive/Bronzeville neighborhood and the historic Mitchell Street neighborhood were selected as the spotlight neighbors. More than 9,700 attendees visited 23 featured sites in these neighborhoods. • The children’s passport program encouraged thousands of children and families to tour 24 special child-friendly sites where they received passport stamps and have a hands-on experience. • We again partnered with the Fund for Lake Michigan, the Harbor District and the School of Freshwater Sciences to create a water passport. This passport showcased 15 sites, from Jones Island to downtown bridge houses, to the Global Water Institute, and more. The ninth annual Doors Open is set for Sept. 28-29. For the third year in a row, HMI has received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in the Design category to help fund Door Open. This year’s $25,000 grant represents a $5,000 increase in funding. The increased amount is earmarked for improvements to the Doors Open web site. HMI has grown Doors Open attendance from 10,000 to more than 31,000 in eight years, making it the 4th most highly attended Open House-type event worldwide, following Chicago, London and Toronto. During Doors Open, more than 1,000 attendees complete a printed and online survey each year which helps us evaluate the program and make improvements. Based on survey results in 2018 we found the following: • 68% of attendees visited a neighborhood they were unfamiliar with before Doors Open • 64% said their opinion of the neighborhood improved as a result of Doors Open • 40% said they are likely and 31% said they are very likely to visit the neighborhood in the future • 95% of attendees rated Doors Open very good or excellent and 97% are likely or very likely to attend in 2019 Doors Open was brought to Milwaukee by Historic Milwaukee tour guide and local librarian, George Wagner. The event continues to rely on 600+ volunteers to plan and staff the event, augmenting Historic Milwaukee’s small paid staff. Doors Open is part of the international Open House concept, and aligns with the mission of the Open House Worldwide movement to showcase outstanding architecture for all to experience. This program invites everyone to explore and understand the value of a well-designed built environment.