Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If you’re looking to learn more about the history, culture and architecture of your hometown (or you’re visiting the city and want to learn more), a walking tour is a great way to do it.
Here are a few walking tours of Milwaukee sites and neighborhoods.
Historic Milwaukee walking tours
Historic Milwaukee is a nonprofit organization that hosts walking tours and events like Doors Open Milwaukee in order to raise awareness about the city’s architecture and history.
Historic Milwaukee Special Tours are guided walking tours.
- German Heritage Walking Tour: Tourists will learn about notable German people and places in Milwaukee history. 2 hours. $20 for adults, $5 for ages 6-11, free for kids 5 and under.
- Beyond Brady: Polish & Italian Immigrants in Milwaukee: Tour explores how this east side neighborhood was the home of Polish and Italian immigrants and became Milwaukee’s counterculture stronghold in the 1960s and ’70s. 2 hours. $15 for adults, $5 for ages 6-11, free for kids 5 and under.
- Industrial Heritage, Walker’s Point: Tour explores how the former warehouses and factories of Walker’s Point have evolved into restaurants, places of business and homes. 2 hours. $20.
- Walker’s Point Churches Tour: Tour explores the architecture and religious beliefs of several churches in Walker’s Point, especially as they evolved throughout Walker’s Point history as different immigrant groups made the neighborhood their worship home. 2 hours. $20.
- Yankee Hill Walking Tour: Tour explores the history of the Yankee Hill neighborhood. 2 hours. $20 for adults, $5 for ages 6-11, free for kids 5 and under.
- Yankee Hill Churches Tour: Tourists walk by seven churches in the east side neighborhood, to learn about their architecture and history. If church schedules allow, tour will also include a walk inside the churches. 2 hours. $20 for adults, $5 for ages 6-11, free for kids 5 and under.
- Wisconsin Avenue Churches Tour: Tourists learn the history of churches constructed from the 1860s through the 1920s with a focus on the architecture, traditions and different ethnic groups that have worshipped there. 2 hours. $20.
- Women’s Milwaukee: Tour explores the history of downtown Milwaukee with a focus on the stories of women rather than the more typically told stories of Solomon Juneau, Byron Kilbourn and George H. Walker. 2 hours. $20 for adults, $5 for ages 6-11, free for kids 5 and under.
- Lulu & Rocky Family Tour: This family tour, recommended for kids ages 6-10 and their families, is based on a children’s book that explores some of the famous and historical sites of downtown Milwaukee. 1.5 hours. $10 for adults, $5 for ages 5-11, $2 for ages 4 and under.
- Gargoyles, Grotesques & Dragons: Tour focuses on the meaning and history behind the “faces” that appear on downtown Milwaukee buildings. 2 hours. $20.
Historic Milwaukee mobile app tours highlight different parts of the city with self-guided routes with suggested stops and information about the sites. Unless otherwise noted, the downloads are free.
- Avenues West: a 2.5-mile tour with 23 stops just west of I-43, a neighborhood that includes Marquette University and historic mansions.
- Brady Street: a .8-mile tour with 27 stops, includes architectural and historic sites of the street. $4.99 to download.
- Clarke Square: a 1.8-mile tour with 17 stops, located in the heart of Milwaukee’s Latin American community, once a predominantly Polish community.
- Diverse Downtown: a 2-mile tour with 18 stops through downtown Milwaukee told through the lens of Native Americans, women and people of color who shaped the area.
- Exploring the Beerline Tour: a 1.4-mile tour with 15 stops, through two Milwaukee neighborhoods, Riverwest and Harambee, with information about the Beerline rail line that was decommissioned in the early 1990s and became a multi-modal recreational trail.
- Harbor District: a 3.5-mile tour with 17 stops, of an area that was once a marshland, became an area known for tanneries and foundries with ships coming and going, and is now an area that groups are working to revitalize.
- Indigenous Milwaukee: a 5-mile tour with 27 stops that focuses on the stories of the many Indigenous communities who have made Milwaukee home.
- Layton Boulevard: a 1.7-mile tour with 17 stops, with historic and cultural stops on the historic street that is now part of 27th Street.
- Metcalfe Park: a 3-mile tour with 28 stops representing the culture and history of this majority-Black community.
- Milwaukee Moderns: a 2-mile tour with 18 stops that focuses on the architecture of buildings in downtown Milwaukee that are in the Postmodern, Brutalist and International styles.
- North Point Mansions South: a 0.8-mile tour with 24 stops in a historic neighborhood on the lower east side that shows off many historic mansions. $4.99 to download
- Silver City: a 1-mile tour with 15 stops of the area that got its name in the early 20th century when its industrial workers were paid in silver coins.
- Visiting Villard Avenue: a 1.2-mile tour with 20 stops that explore the culture and history of this part of “Old North Milwaukee.”
- Yankee Hill: a 1.1-mile tour with 21 stops in the neighborhood that derived its name from its placement on a bluff and the “Yankee” residents who arrived from New York and New England in the 1830s. $4.99 to download.
Historic Milwaukee Self-Guided Tours are self-guided tours in printed form.
- Walking Milwaukee: 31 Tours of Brew City’s Neighborhoods, Landmarks and Entertainment Districts: In this book, each tour includes commentary on topics like architecture, culture, history and trivia along with where to eat, drink and shop. There are photographs, a map for each tour, as well as distance and difficulty level. $16.95.
- Walking Milwaukee: Downtown Edition: The full set of cards includes 10 tour cards, each of which is a mapped walking tour, and eight landmark cards documenting the history of some downtown landmarks. Mini sets are also available for purchase on specific topics including Beer Barons of Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee’s Downtown, Milwaukee’s Lakefront and Yankee Hill. $2-$20.
