• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Approximate boundaries: N-W. Bluemound Rd; S-I-94; E-N. Hawley Rd; W-N. 76th St WEST SIDEBluemound Heights NEIGHBORHOOD DESCRIPTION Bluemound Heights is a moderately dense neighborhood. Most of the area is flat with inter- spersed, gently rolling hills. Streets follow a grid pattern except for along the curve of I-94 at the southern border. The bungalow, most popular between 1905 and 1930, is the main housing type. Businesses are clustered along Bluemound Road—especially toward the eastern section of the neighborhood. There are a number of green spaces throughout Bluemound Heights. One is Juneau Playfield just to the north of the MacDowell Montessori School and a park directly west of the school. Another is on 63rd and Fairview Avenue that was the site of the Fairview Mausoleum constructed by George L. Thomas in 1912. This space is also home to the Bluemound Heights Community Garden. In addition, there is a green space at the site of the Archdiocesan Marian Shrine that occupies a large portion of the block at 68th and Stevenson Avenue. See neighbor- hood photos below. HISTORY Bluemound Heights is named after the street that bounds the neighborhood on the north-- Bluemound Road. The road was once an Indian trail between Milwaukee and Blue Mounds, a village near Madison. Blue Mounds received its name from French missionaries because of the blueish hue of three nearby mounds. Early populations The southern portion of Bluemound Heights was originally acquired by the Johnson family. The land acquisition began with Dr. James Johnson, an Irish immigrant, who came to the Milwaukee area in 1844. He purchased 141 acres of land that were bounded by today’s South 60th and South 68th Streets and Fairview Avenue and the Milwaukee Road tracks—an area that was then within the unincorporated Town of Wauwatosa. Today that area comprises much of the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Johnson’s Woods and Bluemound Heights. In addition to having a medical practice, Dr. Johnson served Milwaukee intermittently as an alderman, health commissioner, and school board member. Dr. Johnson later sold his wooded land to his son, Frederick Johnson, an attorney. Frederick died relatively young in 1900 and his son James Johnson, also an attorney, took over the land. The same year that Frederick died, Allis Chalmers was Todays neighborhood- expanding its operations from its small Walker’s Point location Marian Shrine and purchased 100 acres of farmland at 70th and Greenfield, about a mile south of today’s Bluemound Heights neighbor- hood. This move would greatly impact the future of both Johnson’s Woods and Bluemound Heights. James Johnson recognized the potential for his land as a blue-collar community and platted the west end of his property in 1915, adding two more subdivisions in 1916 and 1917. However, his plans were disrupted by World War I. Development of the area escalated in the 1920s into the 1930s. Between the years of 1927 and 1931, the City of Milwaukee annexed all of today’s Bluemound Heights. The Story Hill neighborhood to the east of the neighborhood had been subdivided beginning in 1911 and was filling up. Many of residents from there and other Milwaukee areas were moving west. Bluemound Heights quickly became a salad bowl of European ethnic populations. Germans and Austrians moved in from the north and northwest sides, Poles from the south side, and Irish, Jews, English, Italians, Yankees, Croatians, Bohemians, Slovenians, and French Canadians from the city’s center and east side. With jobs readily available in the Menomonee Valley and at Allis Chalmers, residents could often walk to work and save money to build their bungalows. An example of the diverse families in early Bluemound Heights appears below, in the randomly selected residents feature. Bluemound Heights random residents (1930s) Household selected randomly from the City Directory in the Bluemound Heights area (information found in census and other public records) The Balistreris The Anthony/Antonino Balistreri family had lived on Jackson Street in the Third Ward before building a home at 144 N. 72nd Street in the Bluemound Heights neighborhood-- sometime prior to 1930. Anthony Balistreri and his wife Anna Maria Alioto Balistreri were Italian immigrants, arriving in the United States in 1897. Typical of Third Ward Italians, Anthony had hailed from Palermo on the island of Sicily. Anthony’s parents were Gaetano and Stefana Balistreri, and Anna Maria’s parents were Mariono Alioto and Giuseppa Busalacchi Alioto. The Balistreri couple had four children, Stefana/Stephanie, Mariono, Joseph, and Gaetanina. While living in the Bluemound Heights neighborhood, Anthony worked as a crane operator—possibly at the nearby Allis Chalmers plant. Unfortunately for the family, Anna Maria died sometime between 1922 and 1930, leaving Anthony to raise his four children by himself. One of the children, daughter Gaetanina (known affectionately at “Tillie”), never married and went on to an award- winning career in education. Having earned a bachelor’s degree from Mount Mary College in 1944 and a master’s degree from the University of Denver in 1964, she became the Instructional Media Director at West Allis Central High School, and was awarded the Madonna Medal for outstanding Community Service in 1985 and later honored as a Mount Mary College Partner in Philanthropy. Her brother Joseph also earned accolades. As a member of the first graduation class of the newly constructed Solomon Juneau High School in Bluemound Heights, he entered the military in 1941, attained the rank of First Lieutenant and was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart for his service to his country during World War II. A question remains about this family that people viewing this website might be able to answer. The names of Balistreri and Alioto are well known in Milwaukee as restauranteurs—both of Aliotos on Bluemound and the two celebrated Balistreri restaurants just blocks away from the former address of this Balistreri family. Was there a connection. Can someone answer? By 1932 the Bluemound Heights neighborhood was nearly filled with families and needed a secondary school. Solomon Juneau High School was erected at 64th and Mount Vernon and was later known as the Solomon Juneau Business High School. At least one of the Balistreri children (see above) attended that school. They may have been classmates of another Juneau alum—astronaut James Lovell, who graduated from Solomon Juneau in 1946. Bluemound Heights’ resident profile (1940s) (Information from census records, Wikipedia photo) James Lovell James Arthur Lovell Jr. (see righti) achieved greatness as a NASA astronaut, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, the command module pilot of Apollo 8, and recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, his life was never easy. He was born in Ohio in 1928 as the only child to parents James Sr. and Blanch Lovell—he the son of Canadian and Northern Irish immigrants and she the daughter of Czech immigrants from Austria. The family made their home in Parma, Ohio. When James Jr. was a young child, his father died in a car accident. This event sent the small family into a migratory mode. By the time young James was completing elementary school, he was sent to live with his aunt, Libby Leedy, in Harrison Indiana. Early on, James developed an interest in rocketry and built flying models. When he reached high school age he rejoined his mother in Milwaukee, living near Solomon Juneau High School, where he attended class and graduated. Between 1946 and 1948 he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the Flying Midshipman program. He then applied for and was accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy. Lovell is perhaps most known for another tragic event in his life, and that was the critical failure of the Apollo 13 mission enroute to the moon. As commander, he and his crew together with mission control, heroically brought the mission safely back to earth. Lovell’s time in Milwaukee was memorialized when North 7th Street between W. State and West Clybourn Streets was renamed North James Lovell Street. Bluemound Heights after World War II World War II impacted the neighborhood in a number of ways. First, many residents, such as Joseph Balistreri, served their country during the conflict. But the war also changed the look of the neighborhood. At the close of the war, the cloistered Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary wanted to establish a shrine to peace. They erected a Carrera marble statue of the Virgin Mary and statues of three children and sheep at 68th and Stevenson, calling it a prayer for peace (see photo below). The shrine soon became a focal point for the neighborhood and attracted people from all over the country. Businesses were also increasing in Bluemound Heights. By 1949, a strong commercial corridor was thriving on West Bluemound Road within the neighborhood boundaries. See list and notes below. Addresses on W. Names of businesses, offices, apartments, organizations from Bluemound in 1949 Milwaukee City Directory 5804 Paro’s Standard Filling Station 5809 Elmer B. Brown Filling Station 5813 Dan’s Garage Auto Repair (Daniel Pahman) 5814 Walter P. Johannsen Barber 5824 Inez Beauty Salon 5826 Kurt P. Steinert Meats 5828 Alex J. Dillmann Groceries 5830 Blue Mound Upholstering Company 5832 Lawrence L. Pulliam Shoe Repair 5834 Apartments 5836 Veri-Best Bakery 5838 Warehouse Market Grocery and Meat 5839 C&G Radio Store 5840 Apartments Anthony Tinetti Tavern 5841 Apartments 5844 Steiner’s Pharmacy 5900 Joseph M. Feeney Tavern 5901 Frank J. Stanley Tavern 5920 Shamon Floor Company 5929 Apartments 5941 Fendry’s Service Station 6000 Blue Mound Service Station and Auto Repair 6019 Sheboygan Sausage Company 6032 Lad & Lassie Frozen Custard 6033 Turks & Leonard Service and Auto Repair 6100 Hastings Distributing Company Vending Machines Addresses on W.

Load more

  16

Copy Link