TRAVEL GUIDE

Wisconsin Travel and Milwaukee City Hall

Milwaukee City Hall has a unique designation that you may come to learn on your Wisconsin travels: it is one of the oldest standing skyscrapers. When it was finished in 1895, it was the world's tallest building at 393 feet tall for four years until the completion of the Park Row Building in New York City.

City Hall was designed by architect Henry Koch. It was based on the Hamburg city hall and local examples of style such as the Pabst Building, which was demolished in 1980. Due to the historic German population in the area, it was designed in the German Renaissance Revival style. As you may notice on your Wisconsin travel adventure, there is a large German influence in Milwaukee still today.

Built from the ground up

The foundation for City Hall was made of 2584 white pine piles, which were driven into the marshy land on the bank of the Milwaukee River. At the moment, the entire building is being renovated, but it is not all its original structure. If you visit here on your Wisconsin travel adventure, you may learn that a fire in 1929 destroyed the upper part of the tower, which was then rebuilt. The current renovations will actually bring the building closer to its original state because there were concerns over ringing the bell in the tower. There was a fear that the vibrations could do serious damage to the building, so it was rarely rung. After the restoration, it will ring out again.

Through the years

This city hall is interesting to visit on your Wisconsin travels because it is listed on the National register of Historic Places and it is a National Historic landmark. In 1910, it was the site of the largest Socialist victory in an American city when Emil Seidel and a majority of his Socialist Common Council swept the municipal elections. Although this reign was short-lived, the city had a number of socialist mayors from 1916 until 1960. Some of these periods were marked by honesty, efficiency, and services for workers in eh city.

Milwaukee in pop culture

An interesting thing to note about City Hall is that it was at one time a marketing tool for the city. The tower used to have a message board on the front three sides, and one side there was a Welcome to Milwaukee sign. This was one of the images in the opening credits for Laverne and Shirley.

While you are visiting Milwaukee on your Wisconsin travels, there is a lot to learn about the varied and interesting history of the Midwest and the city. City Hall is a great place to start, because it was at one time the focus of metropolitan life in the area, with the world's tallest skyscraper - a truly metropolitan idea. Milwaukee has a lot of other cultural attractions as well that you may be interested in visiting on you travels, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Black Holocaust Museum, Discovery World, the Children's Museum, the Milwaukee County Zoo, and much more.