Milwaukee Public Schools
Milwaukee Public Schools is the largest school district in Wisconsin. As of the 2015–16 school year, MPS served 75,568 students in 154 schools and had 9,636 full-time equivalent staff positions; the Milwaukee Public Schools system is the one of the largest in the United States by enrollment. A publicly elected school board, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, provides direction and oversight, with a superintendent heading the organization's administration. Milwaukee Public Schools' offerings include neighborhood schools, specialty schools and charter schools serving students as young as age 3 up through grade 12. Specialty programs in MPS include arts schools such as Milwaukee High School of the Arts; the district owns WYMS-FM, which airs an eclectic selection of music and is programmed by a local non-profit group via an LMA. While overall reading and math proficiency rates are below the state average and below those of some other large city districts, the district did see some growth in scores in both subjects and both grades tested on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress and on the 2012–13 state standardized tests, MPS students, on the whole, outperformed Milwaukee students receiving publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools.
School District officials note declining funding as a catalyst to problems in the district. However, local journalists have cited school officials as lacking in motivation to improve the system; the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in its 2011−12 School District Performance Report lists Milwaukee's Regular Diploma Graduation Rate at 66.2%. In 2012, Rufus King International School – High School Campus was ranked the 130th best public high school in the nation, making it the top performing school in the state of Wisconsin. Ronald Reagan College Preparatory High School was ranked second in Wisconsin, while Milwaukee School of Languages was ranked seventh. In 1990, Milwaukee became the first community in the United States to adopt a school voucher program; the program enables students to receive public funding to study at parochial and other private schools free of cost. The 2006−07 school year marked the first time that more than $100 million was paid in vouchers, as 26% of Milwaukee students receive public funding to attend schools outside the MPS system.
If the voucher program alone were considered a school district, it would mark the sixth-largest district in Wisconsin. Under Wisconsin state law, the Milwaukee school board is one of several entities that can authorize charter schools in the city. Other authorities that can authorize charter schools are the Milwaukee City Council, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Area Technical College Board; the first charter school in Milwaukee was the Highland Community School, a Montessori elementary school authorized by Milwaukee Public Schools in 1996. Audubon Technology & Communication Center Middle School Banner School of Milwaukee Lincoln Center of the Arts Middle School Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts Rufus King International School – Middle Years Campus Wedgewood Park International School The Alliance School Bay View Middle and High School Carmen Middle/High School of Science and Technology-Northwest Campus Milwaukee School of Languages Samuel Morse John Marshall School for the Gifted and Talented Daniels Hmong American Peace Academy MacDowell Montessori School Barack Obama School of Career Technical and Education Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Public Schools Office of Accountability and Efficiency
411 East Wisconsin Center
The 411 East Wisconsin Center is a high-rise located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was built in 1985 on the former site of the Goldsmith Building, it is the fifth tallest building in Milwaukee, it was the second tallest building in Milwaukee at the time of its completion, surpassed by the Milwaukee Center in 1988. The building has been home to the Quarles & Brady law firm since 1986 and the von Briesen & Roper law firm since 1985. In 2005 the building was sold by TIAA-CREF to Triple Net Properties, a real estate company based in Santa Ana, for $95 million, it had an assessed value of $89.2 million in 2005. In 2014, Riverview Realty Partners, an affiliate of Stamford, Connecticut-based Five Mile Capital Partners purchased the building for $74 million and Quarles & Brady extended their lease for another 10 years. Five Mile Capital Partners plans on undergoing $17.5 Million in renovations to the building. List of tallest buildings in Milwaukee
Janesville, Wisconsin
Janesville is a city in southern Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Rock County, the principal municipality of the Janesville, Metropolitan Statistical Area; as of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 63,575. The Janesville area was home to many Native American tribes before the settlement of people from the East. With the Indian Removal Act of 1830, many Native American peoples were uprooted and forced out of their homelands to make room for the new settlers, with many Native peoples, including the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi, being forced onto reservations. American settlers John Inman, George Follmer, Joshua Holmes, William Holmes, Jr. built a crude log cabin in the region in 1835. That year, one key settler named Henry Janes, a native of Virginia, a self-proclaimed woodsman and early city planner, arrived in what is now Rock County. Janes came to the area in the early 1830s, wanted to name the budding village “Blackhawk," after the famous Sauk leader, Chief Black Hawk, but was turned down by Post Office officials.
After some discussion, it was settled that the town would be named after Janes himself and thus, in 1835, Janesville was founded. Despite being named after a Virginian, Janesville was founded by immigrants from New England; these were old stock Yankee immigrants, descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s. The completion of the Erie Canal caused a surge in New Englander immigration to what was the Northwest Territory; some of them were from upstate New York, had parents who had moved to that region from New England shortly after the Revolutionary War. New Englanders, New England transplants from upstate New York, were the vast majority of Janesville's inhabitants during the first several decades of its history. Land surveys encouraged pioneers to settle in the area among the abundance of fertile farmland and woodlands. Many of these early settlers began cultivating wheat and other grains; some of the key settlers hailed from the burned-over district of western New York State.
Some of those in that revival movement were active in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. One of the settlers in Janesville was William Tallman, who hailed from New York. Tallman came to the area in 1850, bought up large tracts of land in hopes of inspiring his fellow New Yorkers to settle in the fertile Rock County, he established himself as one of the most influential and affluent members of the budding Janesville populace. He was passionate about the call for abolition, became a supporter of the Republican Party. One of the crowning moments in Tallman’s life was when he convinced the up-and-coming Illinois Republican, Abraham Lincoln, to speak in Janesville in 1859; the Tallman house is now a historical landmark, best known as “The place where Abraham Lincoln slept.”As the population grew in the Janesville area, several new industries began cropping up along the Rock River, including flour and lumber mills. The first dam was built in 1844. Janesville was active during the Civil War.
Local farms sold grains to the Union army, Rock County was one of the counties in Wisconsin with the highest number of men enlisted. Thomas H. Ruger, of Janesville, served in the war, along with his brothers, Edward and Henry, he rose to the rank of brigadier general. Ruger served as military governor of Georgia, commandant of West Point, he is memorialized at Fort Ruger in Hawaii. After the Civil War, Janesville’s agriculture continued to surge and a greater demand for new farming technology led to the development of several foundries and farm machine manufacturers in the area, including the Janesville Machine Company, the Rock River Iron Works. With the boom in the farm service sector, establishment of a rail system, Janesville soon began to ship goods to and from prominent eastern cities, including New York and Philadelphia. After decades of rigorous grain farming, the soil quality around Janesville began to degrade. Farmers responded to this by planting tobacco, which became one of the most profitable and prolific crops grown in Wisconsin during the late 19th century.
Another development during the mid-19th century was the establishment of a women’s rights movement in Janesville. The movement was founded in the 1850s, continued after the Civil War. One of the key focuses of the group during the 1870s was the Temperance movement. In the late 1880s, German immigrants began to arrive in Janesville in large numbers, they were the largest non-English-speaking group. Unlike in some other areas, in Janesville they experienced no hostility or xenophobia. Janesville's founding English-Puritan-descended Yankee population welcomed them with open arms, with many writing back to relatives in Germany enthusiastically; this led to chain migration. Only one German-language newspaper was founded in the town. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Milwaukee Road and Chicago and North Western railroads had freight and passenger rail connections to the city. Passenger rail service continued until 1971. One of the key developments in Janesville’s history was the establishment of a General Motors plant in 1919.
The plant was established to produce Samson tractors, a company acquired by GM co-founder William C. Durant. Durant was encouraged by Joseph Craig, the president of Janesville Machine, to build a plant to produce the Samson tractors in Janesvill
U.S. Bank Center (Milwaukee)
U. S. Bank Center is a skyscraper located in downtown Milwaukee, noted for being the tallest building in the state of Wisconsin, the tallest building between Chicago and Minneapolis. Standing 601 feet and 42 stories tall, the building has a floor area of 1,077,607 sq ft and it surpassed the Milwaukee City Hall as both the tallest building in the city and the state. Topped off August 29, 1972, completed in 1973, it was the headquarters for what became Firstar Corporation from 1973 to 2001; the building was designed by Bruce Graham and James DeStefano of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and engineered by Fazlur Rahman Khan. As of 2017, the building is home to the headquarters of Foley & Lardner, Robert W. Baird & Company, Sensient Technologies Corporation, is the Milwaukee office for U. S. Bank, IBM, CBRE. Plans were announced by First Wisconsin National Bank to construct a new headquarters building on August 21, 1969. Although no architectural designs were complete at the time of its announcement, bank officials indicated it would rise at least 40 stories.
On March 18, 1971, bank officials unveiled the final design as a 42-story, 601-foot skyscraper, encompassing a full block fronting on East Wisconsin Avenue. Designed by James DeStefano of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with Fitzhugh Scott Architects of Milwaukee serving as an associate planner for the project, the name of the tower was announced as the First Wisconsin Center; the building was topped-out on August 29, 1972, with the installing of the final 20-foot steel beam atop the tower. Along with bank officials, mayor Henry Maier, county executive John Doyne, Wisconsin governor Patrick Lucey attended the ceremony. Near the end of construction in 1973, two fatalities occurred at the work site. In May, a foreman died after being struck by a dump truck. In July, one worker died and four others were injured when a derrick used in installing a 175-pound aluminum panel broke free and fell 41 floors to the ground; the building was occupied on September 4, 1973, celebrated its official opening on October 6, 1973.
While still under construction in September 1972, a group of local developers responsible for the neighboring Juneau Square development filed suit against First Wisconsin. The $138 million suit alleged the bank acted in a "monopolistic" manner to control office development, in an effort to derail the plaintiffs proposed 25-story office tower project on a property adjacent to the First Wisconsin Center. After several years of litigation, the suit went to trial in May 1976; the following October, the court found First Wisconsin guilty and awarded the plaintiffs $6 million in damages, tripled to $18 million due to federal laws on damages awarded to antitrust suits. First Wisconsin appealed the ruling, in August 1977, a federal court ruled the case be retried due to the complexity of the original trial, along with the plaintiffs being allowed more time and the admission of hearsay testimony. Upon appeal, in June 1978 the court ruled in favor of First Wisconsin in clearing the company of all charges.
After remaining under the ownership of First Wisconsin since its opening, in June 1987 it was announced the tower would be purchased for $195 million by the Dallas development company Trammell Crow. At the time of the announced sale, Trammell Crow unveiled plans to construct a 50-story tower southeast of the First Wisconsin Center in overtaking it as the state's tallest building, it has since remained unbuilt. The sale was completed in January 1988 with Trammell Crow paying $195 million for the complex, only to subsequently sell it to an investment partnership for $220.9 million. In December 1988, First Wisconsin changed its name to Firstar Corporation as its operations expanded beyond the state of Wisconsin. In May 1992 the First Wisconsin brand was dropped and all retail banking operations were unified under the name Firstar Bank; as a result, on September 14, 1992, the building was renamed the Firstar Center. In 1996, a $1.2 million skywalk was constructed over Van Buren Street to connect the tower with the neighboring Lewis Center.
The addition was funded in part by the city of Milwaukee as an economic development project as Firstar had significant operations in both the tower and neighboring Lewis Center. In 1998, the ownership partnership of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, the California Public Employees' Retirement System decided to place the center on the market; the following November Star Banc of Cincinnati announced the re-purchase of the tower into company hands for $200 million at the time of their purchase of Firstar. In October 2000, Firstar Corporation announced its purchase of U. S. Bancorp and stated the new company would take the U. S. Bank moniker; the Firstar-U. S. Bancorp merger was approved in February 2001, on May 3, 2002, the Firstar Center became the U. S. Bank Center when the rebranding was completed in Wisconsin. In April 2008, a panel in the Center's adjacent parking garage crushed a car; as a result of this incident, the building owners decided to tear down the garage constructed in 1973 and replace it with a six-story, precast concrete garage.
The 1,000 parking space garage opened in June 2010. The windows on the U. S. Bank Center are sometimes used to display lighted messages, during significant events in Milwaukee. In 2003, the letters "HD", for Harley Davidson, were displayed during HarleyFest to signify their 100th anniversary. In 2005, the letters "UWM", for University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, were displayed during their Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball team's Sweet Sixteen run in the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament; the visible trusses at the top of the bui
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property; the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually; the remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States.
While National Register listings are symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Historic sites outside the country proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, multiple property submissions; the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties; some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service.
These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, some National Monuments. On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices; the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park system. Approval of the act, amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy; the 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, with director George B.
Hartzog Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register; the division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund. The first official Keeper of the Register was an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but for commercial structures as well. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.
S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates." Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate, he was described as a skilled administrator, sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, local governments. Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register; the 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register.
Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups
Flag of Milwaukee
The official flag of Milwaukee was adopted in 1954. It displays symbols of Milwaukee on a medium blue background. In the center, a gear, representing industry, bears symbols of Milwaukee's history. An Indian head, resembling the Milwaukee Braves logo at the time, represents Native American origins. A flag with two stars, said to be a Civil War-era flag, may represent a service flag. A lamp symbol in the upper right was once associated with the Milwaukee City Library. Below this is Milwaukee City Hall, representing government, flanked by abstract outlines of a church, housing, a factory, the Milwaukee Arena, the former County Stadium along a straight shoreline with waves representing Lake Michigan; the golden barley stalk on the left represents Milwaukee's brewing history, the red ship with water symbolizes Milwaukee's status as a port city, with the 1846 date of city incorporation from the merger with Byron Kilbourn's Kilbourntown and Solomon Juneau's Juneautown on the flag's right vertically.
The first attempt to introduce a civic flag came in an 1897 Milwaukee Journal contest. The winning entry included an oak branch with the motto "Steady Progress" over a cream-colored field; the design was praised by then-mayor William C. Rauschenberger, who lost reelection shortly thereafter; the flag was never used by the city. In 1917, Alderman Frederick C. Bogk called for a city flag as part of an ambitious plan for Milwaukee's growth, along with expanding the harbor, investing in infrastructure, preserving residential districts, annexing the innermost suburbs; the flag never came to fruition. In 1927, the Common Council adopted the city's first official city flag, a field of Alice blue with the city seal in golden orange in the center; the flag was given to the Milwaukee Police Department to be carried in parades, fell into disuse. The following year, the Hamburg America cruise line decided to christen its newest ship the MS Milwaukee; the company requested Milwaukee's city flag be brought to Germany for her launching ceremony.
Rather than send the Alice blue flag introduced just the year before, the city considered a new flag design, incorporating alternating angled bars of green and blue emblazoned with a cream-colored "M" over a red circle. Efforts continued to introduce a new city flag. In 1942, Alderman Fred P. Meyers introduced a new resolution in the Common Council proposing "a special city flag committee composed of aldermen and public-spirited citizens who, with the co-operation of the art commission and other art institutions would be commissioned to recommend a design to be ready for Milwaukee's one hundred birthday" on January 31, 1946; the anniversary went without any action from the Council. In the 1950s, Alderman Meyers re-introduced his proposed bill. Milwaukee leaders discovered it was one of only four cities with a population over 500,000 without a flag, so the city held a contest for flag designs; the winner was 17-year old Milwaukeean Alfred P. Dannenmann, who created a flag featuring three interlocking gears labeled "HOMES", "INDUSTRY", "SHIPPING" between a banner reading "MILWAUKEE" and the date "1846".
Dannenmann was awarded a $100 savings bond, but his design was not adopted by the city. Instead, the city's art commission decided to design a new flag itself, incorporating elements of several entries from the previous year's contest. Former alderman Fred Steffan combined elements of some of the better entries to create the flag. In 1975 the city held another contest for a new flag design. Lee Tishler, a Milwaukee Public Museum employee, won with a bright yellow banner featuring symbols of civic life. Although Tishler was awarded the contest's prize of a $100 savings bond in a ceremony at City Hall, his flag was not adopted. In 2001, the Milwaukee Arts Board of the Milwaukee Common Council held a contest to attract designs for a new flag. Over 105 designs were submitted, but none met with the approval of the board, the old design was kept. In a 2004 poll conducted by the North American Vexillological Association, the flag of Milwaukee was rated the fourth worst of all major cities in the United States.
In 2015, in response to negative media coverage spurred by a 99% Invisible episode, Steve Kodis, a local graphic designer, partnered with Greater Together, an AIGA-affiliated non-profit, to launch a flag contest called "The People's Flag of Milwaukee". The public submitted 1,006 entries, from which five finalists were chosen in 2016. In an online poll of over 6,000 people, a design called "Sunrise Over the Lake" received the highest rating of the five; the flag's design is described as follows: The rising sun over Lake Michigan symbolizes a new day. The light blue bars in its reflection represent the city's three rivers... and three founding towns.... Gold represents our brewing history and white symbolizes peace; the organizers of the contest released the design into the public domain, deciding to let the flag gain popular acceptance before pushing for official recognition. Since its introduction, the People's Flag has been adopted by local businesses and used on commercial products from bicycles to microbrew labels.
The Milwaukee Brewers sell merchandise featuring a combination of the flag image and their retro "mb ball-in-glove" logo. On July 19, 2018, the Milwaukee Common Council's Steering and Rules Committee took up a proposal to designate the People's Flag of Milwaukee as the city's new official flag; that committee voted 6-2 to revisit the proposal at another meeting by the end of the year. In November of that year the City of Milwaukee's Arts Board said the original search for a new flag wasn't inclusive enough, that the flag may go back to the drawing board. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the current flag, inclu
Sports in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin is home to a variety of sports teams and events. Milwaukee has a rich history of involvement in professional and sports, going back to the 19th century, its major sports teams include: Throughout the sports world, Milwaukee is best known for its tradition of tailgating before Brewers baseball games. The Brewers made their first post-season appearance in 1981 and won the American League pennant in 1982. In 1998, they became the first Major League team in modern history to switch leagues, doing so to accommodate the expansion franchises of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they have the distinction of being the only team to have played in four of the six current Major League divisions. The Bucks won a mere three years after joining the league, they made it back to the Finals in 1974, but soon developed a reputation as "next year's champions," winning at least one playoff series for the next 15 years, but having yet to return to the Finals. The Wave are the longest continuously-running professional soccer operation in North America.
They have been one of the most successful, having captured five league championships in the past nine years. An interesting note. Under the leadership of Al McGuire, Marquette's men's basketball team became a national powerhouse in the 1970s, capturing the NIT Championship in 1970, the NCAA Championship in 1977. Not only was the'77 championship McGuire's last game, but Marquette remains the last independent school to win the title, it is the last major sports championship won by a Milwaukee sports team. Led by current NBA star Dwyane Wade, Marquette returned to the Final Four in 2003, but was ousted by Kansas in the semi-finals. UW–Milwaukee made its first post-season appearance in men's basketball that same year, under the tutelage of current Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl. Although they lost at the buzzer to Notre Dame in the first round, they would make their first NIT appearance the following year. In 2005, UWM had its most successful year winning both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships.
They would go on to upset Alabama in the first round of the NCAA tournament before shocking Big East powerhouse Boston College on its way to the Sweet 16. So much of an impression had the team made that sportswriters shied away from calling their defeat of sixth-seeded Oklahoma in the 2006 Tournament an "upset," believing UWM may have been the better team. Starting with the 2007-08 season, the Marquette and UWM men's basketball teams will rekindle their annual rivalry game, dormant since 1998; the two schools have always shared heated rivalries in all other common NCAA sports. UWM's men's and women's soccer teams attain national rankings, the school is home to the only Division I baseball team in Wisconsin. High School athletics in Milwaukee is dominated by the Milwaukee City Conference. However, it is home to a number of athletically competitive private high schools such as Marquette University High School, which has the city's only WIAA sanctioned ice hockey team. While the City Conference schools are quite competitive in basketball, track & field and other sports with low costs of maintenance, it has been noted that the schools' collective lack of funds and facilities puts it at a distinct disadvantage in sports such as football.
Problems such as only four of the schools having on-campus stadiums are believed to be a major reason why City Conference schools have been absent from the WIAA State Championship Game since 1986. As a result, many of the city's more talented prep football players either attend private schools on scholarships and vouchers, or suburban schools through school choice programs such as Chapter 220; the City Conference is considered to be the toughest league in Wisconsin for boys' basketball. Its teams have appeared in 21 of the past 24 WIAA Division 1 Championship Games, winning the title in 14 of them. City Conference Alumni include Michael Bennett, "Downtown" Freddie Brown, Terry Porter and Latrell Sprewell; the Milwaukee Bavarians/Bavarian Soccer Club is one of the oldest and most successful amateur soccer clubs in the United States, having captured the National Amateur Cup on two occasions. They play at the fourth level of the American Soccer Pyramid; the Croatian Eagles Soccer Club are the oldest soccer club in North America, founded in 1922.
The Milwaukee suburb of West Allis is home to the Milwaukee Mile auto racing facility, the world's oldest active auto race track, located on the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds. The track has held events sanctioned by major sanctioning bodies, such as the American Automobile Association, USAC, NASCAR, Champ Car World Series, the Indy Racing League. Milwaukee is home to the Pettit National Ice Center, a U. S. Olympic Team training facility, the training site for gold-medal winning speedskaters such as Dan Jansen, Bonnie Blair and Shani Davis. Milwaukee was a stronghold of the American Wrestling Association during pro wrestling's territorial days. Shows run from The MECCA drew large crowds of people who came to see the tag team of former Green Bay Packers lineman Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis and S
