This week in Downtown
Nothing on Downtown’s calendar for the next two weeks yet.
About Downtown
Downtown is Milwaukee's oldest part of town: in 1795 the fur trader Jacques Vieau built a trading post on a bluff above the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers. In the 1840s two rival towns grew here, Juneautown east of the Milwaukee River and Kilbourntown west of it, and they joined with Walker's Point to the south to make one city. Milwaukee City Hall, finished in 1895 with its tall bell tower, still stands over the streets, and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist faces Cathedral Square Park. Today people stroll the Riverwalk on both banks of the Milwaukee River, ride The Hop streetcar, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum on the lakefront, and come down in winter to see the parks lit up for the holidays.