Old World Third Street Historic District
The Old World Third Street Historic District is the last relatively intact part of the original German retail district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Kilbourntown plat, containing examples of various styles of Victorian commercial architecture going back to 1855. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and on the State Register of Historic Places in 1989. A permanent European settlement in what would become Milwaukee began in 1822 when Solomon Juneau built a cabin so he could run his trading post year-round. In treaties of 1831 and 1833 Native  Americans ceded this land to the U.S. government. In 1835 when the land was surveyed and ready to sell, Byron Kilbourn bought the land west of the Milwaukee River that this district occupies and platted his Kilbourntown. Juneau platted a competing town across the river on the east - Juneautown. A third competing settlement, Walker's Point, lay south across the Menomonee River. It wasn't until 1846 that the three competing settlements formed the united city. Early settlers in the 1830s were mostly Yankees from New England, with some British, German, Irish, Norwegians, and Solomon Juneau's black cook, Joe  Oliver. The first buildings were shanties and log cabins, then frame buildings: houses, stores, taverns, sawmills and shops. Two cream brick houses were built in 1836, and in 1840 a 3-story brick store at the corner of Third and Juneau which no longer exists. In 1840 a bridge was built to link Juneautown and Kilbourntown at Juneau Avenue. In that year the combined population of the three settlements was 1,692. Kilbourntown's first cluster of businesses was at the corner West Juneau and Old World 3rd Street. Third Street led to the Green Bay Road and Juneau connected to  the Madison Road, so businesses established along those arteries. While early Kilbourntown had been dominated by Yankees, in the late 1840s other groups began to pour in, and German immigrants soon dominated Kilbourntown. By 1858 the district was a mix of retail shops, wholesale houses, and light manufacturing. During the Civil War some of the early frame shops were replaced by three and four-story brick business blocks with stylish ornamentation in the brickwork. By 1900 businesses lined Third Street from West Wisconsin to North Avenue. The streetcar network connected it to the larger west side business district on Wisconsin  Avenue. Larger buildings like Steinmeyer Co. replaced smaller ones. But then in the 1900s the district was cut off from similar areas by massive office and industrial buildings like the Milwaukee Journal Building and the Park East Freeway. In the 1970s planners recognized that the remaining enclave of Victorian buildings had its own charm and began to promote its "old world," German character. Surviving buildings include: