It was once Detroit and Fowler Streets, and before that was under water.
It was once Detroit and Fowler Streets, and before that was under water. Back to the full article.
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Very interesting article. However, with all due respect, I would re-visit the area west of the I-94 underpass claimed to be “deserted and pedestrian-unfriendly”. I’ve worked in this area for some time, and I find it to be neither of those things.
A precursory drive may make it seem so, but spending actual time on foot exploring the area would prove otherwise. Like many neighborhoods of Milwaukee before they became trendy, there’s more than meets the eye.
Sloane, I am glad you found the article interesting.
I did not drive on the street at all. I walked it three times before writing the article. During those walks I did not pass any other pedestrians. I had to leave the sidewalk on several occasions because it was blocked, as the photos show. I walk all the the streets that I write about and have not run into any sidewalks blocked with vegetation or old fences. To me, that section of the street is deserted and very pedestrian unfriendly.
I care for Milwaukee very much and I hope these obstructions are cleared up and that this section of St. Paul Avenue does become trendy, but I can only see what meets my eye.
This article explains why I remember Milwaukee having a train station on “Fowler”.
One other notable thing about St. Paul Ave. … It includes the first street section rebuilt for the new streetcar. The bridge and the roadway right next to the bridge have gaps (temporarily filled with another material) to accommodate the rails. You can see this in this article’s “Picture 11”. You can see where the eastbound rail will go (in the left EB traffic lane). The photo doesn’t show the WB rails (in the WB right traffic lane), but you can see it if you walk across the bridge.
@Tom D Good point on the bridge
Another excellent article on Milwaukee streets. It would be nice if these articles could be archived and easily retrievable on Urban Milwaukee’s website.
The building at 1100 E Kane Place, the northeast corner of Humboldt and Kane) was once located at the corner of Detroit and Van Buren. It was moved to the current location in 1907.
Thanks for this, Carl. Two points on the ‘original’ St. Paul Avenue: while the street once ended at Eighth Street, a later extension brought St. Paul as far east as Sixth, at Clybourn Street, where this odd-angled street added to an intersection already jammed with car, truck, streetcar and North Shore interurban traffic.
And while this is probably outside your remit, a history of St. Pail Avenue ought to acknowledge “Dirty Helen’ Cromell, who for thirty-five years dispensed booze and profanity in equal portions at the Sunflower Inn, 1806 West St. Paul (now an empty lot.)
Before the construction of the post office/Union Station complex in 1965, Fowler Street was an odd, isolated industrial area, much like Walker’s Point across the river/ It was lined with cold-storage warehouses and loft buildings (including a few remnants of the Palmolive Soap Co. once headquartered at Second and Fowler), busy by day but deserted at night except, at the corner of Plankinton Avenue, an early gay bar, Tony’s Riviera.
Most of this was lost in the mid-sixties; soon after the post office and station came the epic-scale devastation of the interstate highway. Thanks again for reminding us of a bit of old Milwaukee.