East Side, Milwaukee

East Side is a neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, considered to be a cultural and trend-setting center of the city since at least the 1960s. 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 converging in the area's diverse restaurants, bars and stores. The area is also known for its historic architecture, such as St. Hedwig's, on Humboldt Avenue. 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.

History

Well-to-do settlers with upper-class roots developed the East Side along the lake. The location has an appeal on the Milwaukee 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 decades. 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, a movie palace still in operation, was built in 1927. The new University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was created in 1956. Brady Street was the focus of Milwaukee's counter-culture 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 neighborhood as a result of continued private and developer investments.

ee also

St. Hedwig's (Milwaukee)

External links

* [http://www.theeastside.org/ The East Side]