Historians have long been interested in Milwaukee’s ethnic communities and how they
shaped city life.  Churches and synagogues anchored many of these communities, but other
elements of ethnic subcultures also nourished generations of ethnic residents.  Yet surprisingly,
little is known about these subcultures.  What institutions reflected and helped to shape residents’
thought and behavior?  What elements of ethnic subcultures sustained ethnic identity?  How and
why did ethnic communities change over the years?

 These questions provide a starting point for this class assignment on Milwaukee’s
subcultures.   A subculture is a community of people with similar ethnic and class identities who
live in a common geographical area of a city.  Their ethnic and class status often helps to shape
the identity of a neighborhood, or even of a political subdivision like a ward.  For this reason, in
some cities such areas may be identified by such terms as “the Irish third ward,” “Poletown,”
“Little Italy,” or “Chinatown,”   In these areas, people develop institutions and conduct their lives
in ways that reflect distinctive  values and traditions.  The historian Herbert Gutman writes that “a
model subculture included friendly and benevolent societies as well as friendly local politicians,
community-wide holiday celebrations, an occasional library . . . participant sports, churches
sometimes headed by a sympathetic clergy, saloons, beer gardens, and concert halls or music halls
and, depending upon circumstances, trade unionists, labor reformers, and radicals.” (Work,
Culture, and Society in Industrializing America: Essays in American Working-Class and Social
History [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976], p. 45.)
 
 Each student will focus on one church or synagogue and the subculture that surrounded it
taken from the list below.  Study that subculture over any twenty-year period from the late 19th to
early 20th centuries that coincides with the founding of the anchor church or synagogue.  It is
inappropriate for me to suggest all of the questions you might want to ask about “your”
subculture, because as historians you must conceptualize this research project yourself.  But it
does seem appropriate to suggest some questions that should spark many others.  What was the
ethnic, occupational, and class distribution of residents?  Based on a sampling of census schedules
and city directories, what were the composition of households (adults and children) and sources
of family income?   How did immigrants build lives for themselves in ethnic communities while
they also helped build a major industrial center.  What values shaped their thought and behavior?
What neighborhood institutions reflected and symbolized ethnic culture?  How many people
owned property?  How (if at all) did these communities change?
 For sources, you may need to consult census schedules, city directories, local newspapers,
church an parish records, and property and probate records, among others.  I am attaching a brief
list of such records, and of local institutions where you can find them.

            SELECTED MILWAUKEE CHURCHES AND SYNAGOGUES
 

German Catholic

St. Francis Roman Catholic Church and Monastery (1876)
1927 N. 4th Street

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church (1847, 1866-67)
844 N. Broadway

St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church (1877-1886)
1711 S. 9th Street

German Lutheran

St. John’s Lutheran Church (1889)
804 W. Vliet Street

Trinity Lutheran Church (1878)
1046 N. 9th Street

Christ Lutheran Church (1901)
2235 W. Greenfield Avenue
 

Polish Catholic

St. Hedwig’s Roman Catholic Church (1886)
1700 N. Humboldt Avenue

St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church  (1884-1894)
1681 S. 5th Street

St. Josaphat’s Basilica (1897-1902)
601 W. Lincoln Avenue
 

Syrian

St. George Melkite Catholic Church (1917)
1617 W. State Street
 

Serbian
St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church (1956)
3201 S. 51st Street
 

Irish Catholic

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church (1893)
723 W. Washington Street
 

African American

St Mark AME Church
First African American church established in Milwaukee, by Ezekial Gillespie in 1869.  Original
location is at 300 W.  Kilbourn Ave. (corner of 4th St. and Kilbourn ).
Current location:  1616 W. Atkinson Ave.

Calvary Baptist Church
Founded in 1885.  Oldest African American Baptist church in Milwaukee.
2959 N Teutonia Ave.

Greater Galilee Missionary Baptist Church
Founded 1920s.
2432 N Teutonia Ave; 414-562-1110

Mt Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Founded 1919
2207 N Second Street.
 

Jewish Synagogues
(List from Louis J. Swichkow and Lloyd P. Gartner, The History of The Jews of Milwaukee
[Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1963].  Consult city directories
and phone books for addresses.)

Congregation B’ne Jeshurun (founded 1857)

Congregation Emmanu-El (founded 1870, after 1927 became Congregation Emmanu-El B’ne
Jeshurun)

Congregation Anshe Sfard (1891)

Congregation Beth Israel (Originally called Congregation Beth Hamidrosh Hagodol, founded
1892)

Congregation Sinai (1900-1914)

Congregation Beth Yehudah (1929)

Congregation Shalom (1951)

Congregation Sinai (1955)

Congregation Anshe Lubavich (1917)

Congregation Beth Medrash Hogodol (1911)

Congregation Beth El (1923)
 
 
 

 For sources, you may need to consult census schedules, city directories, local newspapers,
church an parish records, and property and probate records, among others.  I am attaching a brief
list of such records, and of local institutions where you can find them.
 

          For Sources.......