This year’s Bay View Historical Society (BVHS) annual August Walk will be held on Saturday, August 6th. We will start and end at Colectivo Coffee, 2301 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue.

Registration will be at 9:00 AM and the walk will begin at 9:30 AM.

Cost will be $5.00 for BVHS members and $10.00 for nonmembers. Anyone purchasing a membership that day will be admitted for $5.00.

The Western Border Walk will be led by society members Ron Winkler and Greg Wernisch. We will follow safety guidelines as determined by our health department and lawmakers at the time of the walk.  Each participant will also receive a copy of the new Western Border walk brochure, one of nine walking tours designed to help Bay Viewites and visitors gain an appreciation of Bay View’s history, architecture and lifestyle.

The walk is approximately two miles, covering the area west of Howell Avenue to First Street and from Lincoln Avenue on the north to Rosedale Avenue on the south. As mentioned in our Spring issue, this will be Greg Wernisch’s thirteenth and final year as co-tour guide.

Highlights of the Western Border include: The home and office of Bay View architect Stanley Kadow, as well as homes and businesses designed by him. We will also see the home of Paul Gauer, Bay View’s Alderman from 1920 until 1936. In 1956 he published “The Gauer Story, a Chronicle of Bay View” as a history of Bay View and memoir of the Gauer Family. Gauer Circle in Bay View was named for him. Two BVHS landmarks will be on the tour. The Keller Winery received landmark designation in 2006 while St. Augustine school was landmarked in 1988. The church, rectory and convent are nearby. Finally, we will see one of Milwaukee’s oldest homes at 2418 S. Howell Avenue. It belonged to Uriah B. Smith, Milwaukee’s first tailor and a realtor. He was the father of Milwaukee’s first non-Native American child, a girl named Milwaukee Smith.

Tickets available in the shop.