annotated bibliography
My dissertation research and this website benefited from public access to a variety of primary source materials that contributed to the historical narrative about Milwaukee’s housing submarkets, as well as the various databases built to enable the CIM and digital twin. The items below document a sampling of the sources utilized to conduct this research. Click the title of each item to view its original source.
Note: For some items available via the HathiTrust Digital Library, it may be necessary to click “Full view” under the “Viewability” panel to view the document in its entirety.
primary source documents & data
The first visioning document for Milwaukee was published by a consultant. Seeking to emulate the prowess of New York and European cities, the report advocated for a grander version of Milwaukee made possible through industrialization and further expansion. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
Following the codification of zoning (1920) and platting (1924) regulations, real estate developers moved quickly to develop subdivisions on the city’s rural periphery in the late 1920s. As the Great Depression worsened in the 1930s, the City sought to quantify vacant lands for future development in this survey. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
The City conducted its first multi-modal transit study in 1938 that documented traffic volumes across multiple local business districts and highlighted the polycentricity of Milwaukee’s neighborhood economies. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
The Parklawn housing project represented the first affordable housing development undertaken by the U.S. Federal government within Milwaukee’s municipal boundary. A divisive project, Parklawn was less effective than intended after it was moved from inner city neighborhoods with the highest housing needs to Milwaukee’s rural periphery. Available via the University of Chicago Libraries.
To control housing congestion and address public health concerns, Milwaukee’s first zoning code sought to reduce density in the city. Zoning became City leadership’s first effective tool in controlling activity in select neighborhoods. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
While City leadership originally envisioned zoning as an effective way to control congested housing conditions, the negative impacts of the regulatory approach were not anticipated. This study assesses the number and location of non-conforming uses resulting from zoning. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
Concerns about public health – particularly for residents in congested housing districts – were persistent among Milwaukee’s City leadership and the general public from the late 1800s onward. However, limited data made thorough studies of specific neighborhoods difficult. This study represents one of the first to document an illness in a specific community in the city. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
This report represents the first time the City proposed specific redevelopment plans for neighborhoods identified as blighted. In the post-World War II era, the City saw the pressing need to adopt activist strategies to revitalize Milwaukee’s most deteriorated neighborhoods. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
The effects of housing congestion and blight on Milwaukee’s downtown business district were an ongoing concern for City leadership and the business community. The Urban Land Institute provided an outside perspective on future planning for downtown Milwaukee in this study. Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.
maps
City of Milwaukee Board of Public Land Commissioners. “Preliminary Plan for Use Districts.” 1920.
This zoning map represents the first effort by City leadership to regulate Milwaukee’s property markets. It accompanied the City’s first zoning code in 1920. Available via the University of Chicago Libraries.
Little is known about the 1936 Milwaukee Housing Survey. However, a collection of 12 maps is available that provides neighborhood-level data about demographic and housing characteristics in the city. Available via the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s American Geographical Society Library (AGSL).
As Milwaukee continued to grow, the City ward boundaries began shifting on a decadal basis to accommodate increases in population and expanding land area. By 1940, Census data began to be reported at the ward and tract level, thus continuing to make the ward maps necessary in historical research. Available via the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s American Geographical Society Library (AGSL).
City of Milwaukee. “Jones Island Property Survey” (1914).
The Kaszub Fishing Colony at Jones’ Island is a representative case study of the ironies and conflicts in Milwaukee’s housing submarkets in the early 1900s. The City’s Property Survey (1914) provides a unique perspective into details about the Colony’s spatial structure and property ownership. Available via the Milwaukee Public Library’s Digital Library.
C.N. Caspar Company. “Map of the City of Milwaukee.” Published by C.N. Caspar Co. Publishers, 1912.
In conjunction with the Sanborn Maps (1910), the mapping of the C.N. Caspar Company provides a realistic and detailed portrait of Milwaukee’s spatial structure at its most dense and industrialized state in the 1910s. Available via the Curiosity Collections at Harvard Library.
Similar to its 1912 map, the C.N. Caspar Company’s 1930 map of Milwaukee documented the city’s increasingly intricate spatial structure. The city had physically expanded, resulting in the addition of new neighborhoods, the expansion of multi-modal transit (i.e., street cars, buses, highways), and a growing park system. Available via the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Milwaukee Neighborhoods digital collection.
Women’s Club of Wisconsin. “Racial Map of Milwaukee.” 1918.
While detailed maps of ethnic and racial enclaves in Milwaukee’s neighborhoods are rare, the Women’s Club of Wisconsin conducted a neighborhood survey in 1918 attempting to document the socio-cultural attributes of the city at the block level. Because the map’s survey methodology is unknown, it should be interpreted more generally. Available via the Milwaukee Public Library’s Digital Milwaukee Maps Collection.