East Side, Milwaukee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article or section is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion, using {{db-spam}}. |
East Side is a neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, considered to be a cultural and trend-setting center of the city for some time. Encompassing an area just north of downtown Milwaukee to Shorewood, bordered by the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan, the area encompasses residences, bars, shops, art theaters, live music clubs and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus.
The East Side is considered by some as Milwaukee's melting pot, with a mix of hipsters, hippies, college students and young professionals hanging out in the area's diverse restaurants, bars and stores. The area is also known for its historic architecture, such as St. Hedwig's (Milwaukee) on Humboldt. With the exception of St. Hedwig's, the buildings of the area reflect the styles popular in Milwaukee, including the Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival, and the German Renaissance Revival.
[edit] History
Well to-do Yankee settlers with upper class roots developed Milwaukee's East Side along the lake. Its was an appealing location on the bluffs of Lake Michigan. Many of the extravagant homes are still standing today. Away from the lake, workers for the nearby tanneries settled in, creating an ethnically diverse area over the years. By the early 1870s East Brady Street began to emerge as a center of Polish commerce with a concentration of working class Polish immigrants living in the surrounding neighborhood. In the 1920s the ethnic focus of the neighborhood began to shift to Italian, reaching its peak in the 1950s.
Oriental Theatre was built in 1927. The new University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was created in 1956. Brady Street was the focus of counterculture in the 1960s, with Brady Street Days, head shops, and Kitchen Sink Press, one of the world's largest underground comics publishers.
The East Side was the site of the founding of the Kingdom of Talossa in 1979.
During the first decade of the 21st century parts of the area have seen gentrification, with many housing assessments doubling; commerce continues to grow in the neighboorhodd as a result of continued private and developer investments.
