underwent a street renumbering program in 1930/1931. Because of this, it is usually
difficult to find a pre-1930 address in the correct placement on a current map.
The Wright’s Milwaukee City Directory of 1931 indicated:
“The north and south base line division is N First St, the
Milwaukee River, S First St, and S Chase Ave, while the harbor entrance,
Menomonee River, W Canal St and W Fairview Ave constitute the east and west
base line.All streets north and south
of the east and west base line bear the prefix “North” or “South,” respectively,
while all streets running east or west of the north and south base line bear
the prefix “East” or “West.”
“All houses and buildings are numbered on a basis of one
number for each fifteen feet of property frontage, starting at the base line
with the number 100, and continuing with consecutive hundreds at each street
intersection, wherever possible.Where
only one number is available for any house or building, and such house has an
upper portion or the property a rear house, the same number is used, including
the suffix “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. as required.”
The 1930 Wright’s Directory, we understand, had a “Wright’s
StreetGuide Supplement to 1930
Milwaukee City Directory” that might include old and new numerical
comparisons.The Wright’s Milwaukee City
Directory of 1931 for a few streets showed old and new house number
How our tables were generated:
The files we generated are from street name changes in the
1929, 1930, and 1931 MilwaukeeCity
directories, street name changes on a 1930 Milwaukee Journal Tour Club map, and
transcriptions of the 1929 cross street addresses.We used the 1929 Directory as the base source
of street names and sequences.If such
names and sequences were different in the 1931 directory, we *ignored* the new
sequence or the new compass modifiers of a street.We
tried to show the old-new names, as well as renumbering.We transcribed the starting address of each
block for streets that crossed more than one block, and that appeared to have
(in 1929) the “old” numbering system.If
a street name does not appear in our table, it is because it was either one
block long or did not have a renumbering between 1929 and 1931, or its name was
changed and it is in a different part of the table.If we missed renumbered streets, let us know
and we will correct the table, but as of early February 2005 we are still
constructing this utility.Again, the
primary emphasis was on the placement of 1929 addresses within their
cross-streets.On some streets it
appeared that the 1931 renumbering was in the opposite sequence than the
original numbering; in that case, a range of addresses found between the two
cross streets are shown. This usually happened when a street was broken up into
East and West (or North and South) segments, with the low #(100) in the middle of the old sequence,
and new numbers going higher in both
directions toward the two ends.We do
not show the new compass modifiers for these streets, but you should be able to
figure this out from a current map.
To use the utility, let’s use an example of 993 Bremen, an
address from 1925.
would choose the table link that contained the “B” street names.
would find the box that encloses Bremen on the table.
would look on Column 1 for a house number equal or greater than 993.
at the table, you would find that 987 Bremen was the first address between
Clarke and Center pre-1930s, and 1054 Bremen was the first address between
Center and Hadley.You can see
these cross streets in column 3.They should be in sequence.
(4) you would know that your address (993) was between Clarke and Center,
that is, between (or equal to) 987 to 1053.
2 shows the lowest address of each of these same blocks in 1931.You would see that the block that
started with 987 Bremen was, in 1931, starting with 2604 Bremen.Quite a difference in numbers!!!But note that the cross-streets are the
that the numbers in the first and second columns do NOT necessarily refer
to the same house.It’s possible a
house was built on a vacant lot during the period between the city
directories, and might change the number of the first house on the block.
If we show street name changes, the old name is in Column 1
and the new name is in Column 2.