For much of its history, Milwaukee was an anomaly among U.S. cities. An outpost of Central Europe in the American Midwest, Milwaukee spoke German and Polish, had a political heritage of democratic socialism and a cultural legacy left by beer barons raised on Bach, Beethoven and Goethe.
John Gurda has earned accolades for bringing Milwaukee’s unique past to life. A historian by training, a storyteller by inclination and a native Milwaukeean, Gurda began by writing small histories of particular neighborhoods and ethnic groups. He later encompassed the entire city with his magisterial book, The Making of Milwaukee, which became the basis for an Emmy-winning public television series.
Gurda’s newest book, Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, is a lavishly illustrated, well-informed examination of the city through its components, the neighborhoods where people live and work. Blending past and present, Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods is a hybrid of history and travelogue, a great introduction to Milwaukee for visitors and newcomers and full of surprises even for lifelong residents.
We spoke recently about Gurda’s fascination with Milwaukee’s neighborhoods, his unique role in naming some of them and the city’s hunger for more information about our history.
Shepherd: Tell me how you got started writing Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods.
Gurda: It goes back to the 1980s with work I was doing with the Milwaukee Department of City Development—the neighborhood poster project. It was [DCD communication manager] Greg Coenen’s idea—and not quite an afterthought—that I write essays on each neighborhood on the backs of the posters. The idea of City of Neighborhoods takes me back to the first book I ever did, in 1972, The Near South Side: A Delicate Balance.
Shepherd: Most of Milwaukee’s neighborhoods didn’t have names before that poster project, right?
Gurda: That’s right. Some of the names from that project stuck, like Clarke Square or Washington Heights. Others, like Clock Tower Acres southeast of Rockwell Automation, the old Allen-Bradley complex, didn’t catch on. But many neighborhood names, such as Sherman Park, were the result of neighborhood groups. Riverwest was named back in the ’70s by a group called ESHAC [East Side Housing Action Coalition]. And to be sure, some neighborhood names go back a long way. Yankee Hill goes back to the 1840s and Hill Side to the 1940s. Of course, Bay View was once a village before it was annexed by Milwaukee.
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Shepherd: People used to talk mostly about the city’s North Side, South Side, East Side and West Side.
Gurda: Sidedness is a defining characteristic of Milwaukee. It all comes from the rivers. The idea of the city having sides was there from the beginning.
Shepherd: Is there value in naming or defining smaller sections of Milwaukee as neighborhoods?
Gurda: The positive impact is that it can reinforce a feeling of home—that’s a valuable thing to have in a complex, often anonymous urban environment.
Shepherd: Milwaukee neighborhoods often had a particular ethnic character.
Gurda: Some of this depends on geography. The North Side always tended to be monolithic—it’s an undifferentiated geographical area without rivers. One group after another settled there in large numbers—Germans, Jews and then African Americans. The Near South Side was always wildly, crazily diverse since the 1830s, but south of Greenfield Avenue you find that same undifferentiated geography as on the North Side. It was predominantly Polish, then Latino.
Shepherd: You must get great satisfaction from your role in promoting the public perception of Milwaukee as a unique American city.
Gurda: I’m reluctant to take much credit. The work I’ve done has fed a latent desire for connection with the past. “The Making of Milwaukee” was the most-watched public television program [nationwide] for four nights running when it premiered. [Director] Claudia Looze and I told the story well, but there was already a hunger for that kind of history and we fed it.
John Gurda will discuss South Side history and sign copies of Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7, at the Basilica of St. Josaphat, 2333 S. Sixth St. Tickets are $5 at the door.
