Secret Milwaukee: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure by Jim Nelsen
If you’re not ready for one of John Gurda’s books, try Secret Milwaukee for a fast, fun to read backwards glance at the city’s history. Secret Milwaukee is by no means exhaustive, but the photo-illustrated handbook checks off many boxes from the past––from the freeing of enslaved Black man Joshua Glover (1854) through sites that may have inspired the fictional compass points of “Happy Days.” Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Street homes are included, as is Old St. Mary (Milwaukee’s oldest church) and the marker on the spot where the “Little Pink Church” once stood (before being razed for “urban renewal” in the ‘60s). The author, Milwaukee social studies teacher Jim Nelsen, ties his accounts to existing places or historical markers. One exception: the speakeasy run by Dirty Helen (now a parking lot).
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