Milwaukee and Wisconsin have been called a lot of things--some more flattering than others--but it’s from our best exports that the most common nicknames are derived: Brew City and the Dairy State. It’s not a stretch to think Milwaukee has also been labeled the Cream City because of its strategic position in what Wisconsin license plates deem “America’s Dairyland,” but that isn’t the case. It was hailed as Cream City because of the overall coloration of Milwaukee in the mid- to late-19th century, when one of the most common building materials was cream and pale yellow brick.
Deep veins of red lacustrine clay containing lime and sulfur are embedded along the western shore of Lake Michigan. In 1835 brothers Nelson and Thomas Olin opened a clay pit near the lakeshore and constructed what is believed to be the first brick kiln in Milwaukee. When they fired the clay in their 25,000-brick oven, it produced a light golden yellow brick, not the familiar red color that was popular out East. Not only was it pleasant to the eye, but the brick also revealed itself to have superior strength and weather-resistant characteristics.
Milwaukee’s masons used these locally manufactured bricks to build the city’s first brick homes in the 1830s. Although it was more expensive than wood, the bricks were cheap enough that even some laborers were able to afford to build their homes out of the material. When looking at Milwaukee from afar, the entire city took on a golden hue from all the homes, businesses, industrial plants, churches and municipal buildings constructed of the buff-colored bricks.
|
|
By the 1850s, word of Milwaukee’s cream-colored bricks had spread throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest, and demand grew. In 1859, when the M.S. Scott became the second ship to leave Milwaukee for a foreign port, it carried the unique bricks to Hamburg, Germany, starting a trend among European architects to use the novel bricks to ornament buildings. According to Robert Wells, author of This Is Milwaukee, the region’s largest brickyard was located on the southern rim of the Menomonee Valley. Operated by George Burnham, the brickyard manufactured 15 million cream-colored bricks in 1880 alone. His brother John also owned a large brickyard, as did Hiram Bond and his partner, William Hanchett, Dutchman Martin Davelaar and Milwaukee-pioneer Enoch Chase.
By the 1900s, the pale bricks’ porous nature caused them to lose their luster. They absorbed the smoke, dirt and other pollutants spewed forth during Milwaukee’s early industrial heyday and blackened over time. Combined with a change in supply and improved access to other building materials such as concrete, Cream City brick production declined after 1900. Once soiled, the bricks were difficult to refurbish, as many building restoration experts found in the ’70s. Sandblasting was not only ineffective, but it also damaged the bricks. Expensive chemical washes seem to be the most effect method of cleaning the soft but durable material. Many of these golden-hued beauties still adorn Milwaukee’s oldest buildings. Just follow the yellow brick road destined for the Cream City to discover them.
