What Milwaukee, WI looked like in the 1890s

Persons pictured (left to right) are W.F. Tratt, D.H. Walker, L.D. Sumner, J.B. Kerr, L.C. Mayhew, J.F. Pyre, J.D. Freeman, R.C. Thiele, E.H. Ahara, F. Kull, G.N. Knapp, W.T. Sauderman, L.B. Flower, C.B. Raymond, F.H. Bartlett, H.M. Coleman, and B.L. Worden.

The negative from which this slide was made was number 618 of the Louis M. Thiers collection of glass negatives from the Kenosha County Historical Society. The date is about 1890. The first building was the pastor's residence. The second was the home of the sisters and in the distance is seen a part of St. George's school hall. All were located on Milwaukee Street (Seventh Avenue) on the same block as St. George's Church.

West Milwaukee Street near Jackson Street looking east. The photo includes a man driving a horse and wagon, women walking on the sidewalk in long dresses and hats, and assorted buildings and telegraph wires.

This is a view of the fire that destroyed a large part of the plant of the Simmons Company, Kenosha Lumber Company, and considerable hardwood lumber of the Bain Wagon Company on April 19, 1892. This picture shows the steam fire engine from Milwaukee, Racine, and Waukegan at work pumping water from the harbor.

A horse pulling two people in a sleigh is in front. Conner and Hawes Law Offices are on the second floor. A sign saying "United States Depository" can be read on the front of the bank building.

The Walter Allen School was an elementary school located at 1657 South Third Street. In 1949 the school was still in use and was the oldest school building in Milwaukee.

An ornate Victorian etagere stands between two windows against the far wall. On the left is a fireplace with a cloth draped over the mantle, where two urns and a ewer are displayed. There are framed paintings or prints on the walls and a gas-lit chandelier overhead.

In 1893, the "Kate Howard" was owned and operated by Captain Harry Roffenor and hailed from Holland, Michigan. The "Kate Howard" visited the port of Kenosha for many years. She was a two-masted schooner with square rigged forward mast and standing jib on the rear mast. This schooner was lost between Milwaukee and Kenosha some time in the late 1890s.

Electric power poles are along the street, along which horse-drawn carriages and trolleys travel. A large clock is on the sidewalk to the right, and many buildings line the road into the distance.

At the corner of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Streets; the present site of T.A. Chapman Store. View of building from across the street.

The driver is holding a long whip and is wearing a top hat, winter coat and a fur capelet. The rig is parked in front of a bay window, just beyond the porte-cochere of a large stone house. There is snow on the ground.

An ornate Victorian etagere stands between two windows against the far wall. On the left is a fireplace with a cloth draped over the mantle, where two urns and a ewer are displayed. There are framed paintings or prints on the walls and a gas-lit chandelier overhead.

A railroad runs along the side of the factory. Pleasant Street (possibly known as Dock Street at the time) runs along the right side, with a bridge over the Milwaukee River. Several ships are on the river. There are insets of the Bay View Tannery, the Sheep-Skin Tannery, the Canal Tannery, and the Pfister & Vogel store in Boston.

The three-story brick Queen Anne Style home has multiple porches, a turret, plaster ornamentation and Flemish Style gables. A chimney rises high above the roof. Two other Grand Avenue mansions are glimpsed at far right.

Also the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company building. Large building on the corner of National Avenue, with a sign for the National Exchange Bank painted on the window.

Southeast corner of Second and Sycamore Streets, later the site of a large street railway building. The picture was taken shortly after the interior was dismantled.

The Grand Avenue Bridge is on the left, which is decorated with bunting and banners, and is crowded with pedestrians. The roof of a streetcar can be seen above the heads of the pedestrians in the center of the bridge. Multi-story commercial buildings line the avenue on the opposite side of the river.

View from street towards a streetcar passing in front of the 1872 Brumder building located, according to a note of the reverse of the photograph, "on N. E. corner of Plankington [sic] Ave. and Kilbourn."

She is sitting on a throne-like love seat which has a matching footstool, and is wearing a full-length dress with balloon sleeves and long white gloves.

The idea of the garden was borrowed from Germany where beer gardens were common. It opened on July 3, 1896. The Schlitz beer garden was one of the most popular and opulent in Milwaukee.

Well-dressed men, women and children are sitting at long tables, and more people are standing in the background for a group portrait at a wedding reception. They are under a large tent with a temporary wooden floor.

Exterior view of the building at the corner of N. 12th St. and W. St. Paul Avenue that housed Badger State Shoe Co. and Saveland Manufacturing Co. Two horses are hitched to empty carriages standing in the road in front of the building.

There is a brick building, perhaps a pumphouse, built over the water behind him. In the far distance are rooftops and a church building.

Other children and adults are around the pond which is on a hill. In the background below the hill are the spires of churches and roofs of houses.

To the right two flags are strung up flagpoles near a building with a covered porch, perhaps a boathouse. Along the shoreline are nets neatly wound up on net reels to dry.

She reaches though the decorative panels on the back of the chair and grabs an apple from a plate that rests on the caned-seat.

View across Grand Avenue of the Milwaukee Public Library. To the left, the base of the Midsummer Festival Monument can be seen, and the George Washington monument is visible on the far right.