Billboards adorn the side of a house on West State Street , 1936.
Recently, Yale University launched an amazing online archive of more than 170,000 images made between 1935 and 1944 by the Farm Security Administration. The New Deal program set out to document conditions of poverty in America and the impact of federal relief programs. One of the most impressive features of the archive is the interactive map feature which allows users to browse images by the county in which they were made.
Over 300 pictures come from Milwaukee County . Some of these have appeared online before (a few of them even appear in my book), but the Yale archive is well-worth the time of any Milwaukee history buff. I’ve chosen a few of my favorite images below and did a little detective work to provide some context.
Note: I’ve also linked each title to the image’s Library of Congress page, where these images are hosted and (in most cases) high-resolution images can be downloaded.
“North Tenth and McKinley, House next to Junkyard”
The title of this image suggests it was made to show the often close relations between residential and commercial buildings, in this case a junkyard and tavern sitting right up against homes. The tavern at the center of the image was run by Joseph Vachalek, who was advertising 14 ounce glasses of beer for a nickel and Old Gold cigarettes with his window displays. Given the Pabst sign and beautiful Pabst bulb lamp over the doorway, it is safe to say this was once a “tied-house” and served Pabst beer exclusively. By the time this image was made, however, the state had banned the practice.
“Drawbridge, Milwaukee, Wisconsin”
The Grand Avenue bascule bridge, pictured here as the Wisconsin Avenue bridge in 1939, opened to the public in March 1902. Although these are sometimes called “Chicago-Style bridges,” the Grand Ave span opened two months before Chicago ’s first bascule bridge and utilized an operational design that was more widely adopted nationally. Through the early 1900s, new bascule-style spans replaced the old downtown swing style bridges. With a dozen different passenger lines docking on the downtown river around this time, advertising signs were very common along the waterway and – as seen here on the Michigan Street bascule – were even occasionally featured on the city-owned bridges. This picture was made as a part of the Federal Government’s inventory of urban infrastructure. The bridge was replaced by a vertical lift span in 1975, which itself was rebuilt in 2011-2012.
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“Rear of Apartment Houses Showing New Milwaukee Courthouse in Background”
Although the courthouse wasn’t really “new” in April 1936 when this image was made (it opened in 1929), the juxtaposition here between a downtown slum and the towering beacon of truth and justice still drives home the intended point. This pair of aged apartment buildings were the Hollywood (L) and the Main (R) buildings, each located along a section of North Ninth Street that no longer exists. These were each tenement-style apartment buildings, which were once fairly common downtown. Oddly enough, the courthouse was built in the spirit of the “City Beautiful” movement that emerged in the late 1800s and strove to transform the messy and unsightly modern urban environment (like these tenements) into something more orderly and idyllic. Civic buildings designed in grand European styles and lush parkways and gardens were a key element of this. The impact of this thinking still lingers in Milwaukee – in the county parks system, City Hall, the Central Library – but, as it was most everywhere, the movement was slow-going. The area from which this picture was taken is now MacArthur Square , another part of the City Beautiful concept. But back in 1936, it was home to what was considered just one more unsightly cluster of poor folks, blocking a view of something better.
“1316 West Walnut Blight. Milwaukee, Wisconsin”
Located just outside of what is traditionally considered to be the Bronzeville neighborhood (although the city’s black population was still very small when it was taken in 1936), this picture shows examples of the some of poorer housing stock in the area. In the depths of the Great Depression, the house was being used for commercial purposes, most likely still serving as a residence by someone trying to make ends meet. Neighbors could, per the many signs on the property, get most any kind of tailoring done here. If you view the larger image, be sure to check out the window to the left of the front door. There’s a creepy little surprise waiting for you.
“Fishing Nets” & “Group of Fishing Shacks,” Jones Island , Milwaukee
These pictures, taken in April 1936, provide a view of the Jones Island fishing community in its last days. By the mid-1930s, only a few families remained on the island, down from a peak of nearly 2,000 residents around the turn of the century. The fishing shacks seen here were located as the south end of the island (these may have actually been the only shacks remaining by then) with the giant crane looming over all an indicator that modernity was finally overtaking the once-rustic lakefront outpost. The nets, hung on the giant devices used to help them dry faster, face towards in the inner harbor, with more cranes and what appears to be a large coal pile near where the UWM Freshwater research center is today.
“German Couple, Milwaukee, Wisconsin”
I thought I’d close with this picture. I couldn’t find out anything about these two, who were snapped somewhere downtown during the 1939 National Letter Carrier’s Convention Parade. But I really love this picture. The man’s rumpled suit and contented, cigar-pinching grin. I like to think that going to the parade was his idea and that his wife, wearing a nice dress and her best damn hat, is silently cursing the dope as she has to stand there and waste a whole Saturday watching an army of mailmen march past. But still, they’re in love.
