Today brings us to circa 1960 in the Third Ward. Schmitt Orlow men’s clothing store is on the left and a car/bus stop is in front of it. Any guesses as to where this photo was located?

Everyone has probably been waiting all day for this late edition of the Monday Milwaukee Mystery. This is a difficult one and the picture is downtown with only the building having the billboards as still existing. The time is sometime in the 1940s so everything is now quite different. Clues will come later unless someone takes a good guess! Where in downtown was this photo located?

An easy one this week for the befuddled fans of the Monday Mystery. This one was of a building that used to be located downtown. The picture is from a postcard as it looked during happier times and looks northwest. What was this building and where was it?

We will keep the same format with this week by showing an old picture of a building. This picture shows a downtown building which is still around so some of you may recognize it. It looks just a little different than this and is somewhat well known. The picture gives some clues to narrow it down. Good luck in your guesses!

This week we are doing another old building that was downtown until the 1960s. It was a fancy stone building with incredibly detailed ornamental carvings. Which building was this and where was it located?

I’m back! A big thanks to Chris for handling things very well while I have been gone.

This week I have a picture from a book from way back in 1910. It shows a downtown building that housed the Fairbanks-Frey Engraving Company and was torn down just a short few years after this photo was published. It was an interesting 19th century building of cream city brick and a gabled mansard roof. A big clue is the entrance to The Orpheum in the front of the building which should at least get people guessing in the right vicinity. Where in Milwaukee was this building located?

This week we’re near downtown, looking at a dense, bustling neighborhood, complete with a liquor store, a restaurant, an auto service garage, a bakery, a grocery, and laundry- all on a streetcar line.

The view today is quite a bit different-only the corner apartment building and auto service garage building remain.

In fact, the business that went on to occupy the the auto service garage space for 39 years got quite a bit of press coverage when it closed suddenly this past spring…

Where are we looking?

This week’s mystery photo was taken sometime in the 1940s, somewhere on the city’s south side. Schultz’s Tavern is on the right and a drug store is on the left. The #14 streetcar is westbound. Many of the buildings you see are still there, although they’re looking a bit scruffy nowadays.

Any guesses? Good Luck!

This Monday’s mystery picture shows someplace downtown and we are looking north at an interesting building with art deco terra-cotta ornamentation. The corner is occupied by Bloedel’s Jewelers. A # 40 street car is southbound. Only a few of the buildings shown still exist. Where are we looking?

This photo was taken in 1940 somewhere downtown and shows a couple of interesting apartment buildings. The one on the left was the Hollywood apartments and you’ll notice something odd about the bottom floors. The porticos on the second floor seem to be very grand, as if they were the main entrance. When they were built they actually were the main entrances! An elevation change on the street shown required all the buildings to change their main entrances to be one floor lower than where they were originally. Where was this street?