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Written by Kerrie Kennedy
Jun 30, 2010
Bastille Days, July 8 to 11, features a landmark 43-foot lighted replica of the Eiffel Tower that recognizes East Town's French heritage. – Photo: Courtesy East Town Association
East Town boasts more than 200 businesses, including some of Milwaukee's most popular entertainment and dining venues. – Photo: Kate Brenner
Can’t make it to Paris for Bastille Day? No problem – head over to Cathedral Square in Milwaukee’s East Town. You won’t find all that je ne sais quoi Parisian attitude, but you will find an abundance of champagne, crepes, croissants, pommes frites – and even a replica of the Eiffel Tower. The 43-foot lighted tower, constructed by a crew of volunteer students from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, is one of the highlights of the annual July celebration, which is the largest French-themed outdoor festival in North America and one of Milwaukee’s most popular events with LGBT people.
People who associate Milwaukee with beer and brats – as opposed to champagne and crepes – may be surprised to learn that Milwaukee’s French roots go back much further than its German heritage. According to Anne Herisson-Leplae, executive director of the Alliance Francaise Milwaukee, they go back even farther than the city itself.
“If you look at the very first maps of Wisconsin, they were all written in French, because the first explorers were French,” Herrison-Leplae says. “Wisconsin was actually spelled ‘Ouisconsin’”
Many of Milwaukee’s French roots can be traced directly to East Town, a neighborhood once called Juneau Town in honor of the city’s first mayor, Frenchman Solomon Juneau. Located east of the Milwaukee River and bordered by Brady Street, the Third Ward and Lake Michigan, East Town became the site for Bastille Days after a local French chef and an art gallery owner decided to celebrate the neighborhood’s French roots with an event that would attract more people downtown.
More than 200,000 people will head to East Town July 8 to 11 for Bastille Days, a Francophile’s paradise complete with French food, French history neighborhood tours, French games (Petanque, a French game similar to Bocce ball), French wines and cheeses, French music, French language lessons and French mass at the historic St. John the Evangelist Cathedral at Cathedral Square.
One of the most popular events is the waiter/waitress race, which has local restaurant servers competing on an obstacle course carrying trays of full wine glasses, which are inevitably spilled. The event is a great way to bring together some of East Town’s businesses, says Kate Borders, executive director of the East Town Association.
The business district in East Town contributes to Bastille Day’s ambiance, Herrison-Leplae says: “The cafes on the sidewalks, the French restaurants and the cultural institutions give East Town a French feel right in the heart of Milwaukee.”
The area's newest attraction is the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, which is in the process of opening in the Blatz Boiler House, 252 E. Highland Ave. - only a stone's throw from such East Town attractions as the Marcus Center for Performing Arts, The Pabst, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Cathedral Square.
In addition to Bastille Days, East Town hosts the hugely popular Jazz in the Park in Cathedral Square every Thursday evening from 6 to 9 p.m., June 3 through Sept. 23. This event is also a great favorite with local gays, many of whom head over to This Is It, 418 E. Wells St., to continue partying after the music dies down. Tempt, Milwaukee’s newest gay bar at 324 E. Mason St., is another East Town gay attraction.
East Town boasts more than 200 businesses, including such gay-friendly hangouts as Elsa’s on the Park, 833 N. Jefferson St. White Star, a gay-owned men’s “clothing lounge” opened at 524 N. Water St. in late spring, and a five-story, 55,000-sq.-ft. Gold’s Gym is set to open at 735 N. Water St. in late fall.
“It’s a pretty big mix here, just like the neighborhood itself,” Borders says. “We have law firms, accounting firms, restaurants, spas, salons, hotels, a post office and two grocery stores. In one square mile, you can do just about anything.”
That might be why Money Magazine recently named East Town one of the best places to retire in the U.S. “It’s such a walkable neighborhood,” says Shorewest Realtors agent and longtime East Town resident Dennis Miller. “There are many fine restaurants in the neighborhood and you can walk to almost any service you might need.” According to Miller, the Web site Walkscore.com, which rates neighborhoods on their walk-ability, gives East Town a score of 95, or “walker’s paradise.”
East Town’s location is also somewhat of a paradise, Miller says. “There’s easy access to the lakefront for people who like to bike and run, and at the same time it’s a great downtown location for people who want to walk to work.”
Unlike many other downtown areas, East Town has always been a residential neighborhood, which means it has numerous housing options. There are old, beautifully restored mansions and vintage hotels and buildings that have been converted to condos, as well as new construction condominiums, buildings and townhomes, many overlooking the lake or the river.
According to Miller, prices in East Town are as diverse as its housing stock. At the top of the price range are newly constructed condominiums in luxury buildings along the lakefront. These units can run up to several million dollars. At the bottom of the price range are efficiency units in converted condominium buildings. Studio units in the Knickerbocker on the Lake, for example, start as low as $50,000.
Despite the housing slowdown, new projects in the neighborhood, such as the Breakwater – a new construction condo building overlooking Lake Michigan – are selling briskly, Miller says. He attributes the success to the neighborhood’s inherent charm, its vibrant history, arts, entertainment, parks and festivals.
