Today I am taking a break from Milwaukee activities to explain the tag line in my blog title. Inquiring minds were wondering why they call Milwaukee the Cream City.
Some might assume that the cream has to do with Wisconsin being the dairy state or even that creamy froth found on top of the state's favorite beverage, beer. In all actuality, the name comes from the cream-colored bricks that many of the cities buildings were made from.
Along the shore of Lake Michigan, there is a type of weather resistant clay called red lacustrine. After this clay is fired into bricks it turns a creamy yellow color. The bricks became popular quickly due to their weather resistance and color-fastness. This started a brick-building boom. This local building material has been used in Milwaukee since the late 1830s. By the 80s, Burnham Brickyard employed 200 men and kicked out a whopping 15 million bricks a year making it the largest brickyard in the world.
By the end of the 1870s so many buildings in Milwaukee were built using the bricks that it was hard NOT to notice the overwhelmingly cream colored cityscape. This is where the "Cream City" got her name.
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