#414 area code

[uwmspeccoll]

414 Day

It’s 414 Day, or Milwaukee Day! We celebrate Milwaukee on April 14 because the area code for the Milwaukee area is, you guessed it, 414! This year for 414 day we are celebrating a few of the spectacular movie palaces in Milwaukee that still act as theatres in some capacity today. 

First shown here is Downer Theatre, located at 2589 N. Downer Ave on Milwaukee’s East Side. The Downer Theatre is Milwaukee’s oldest operating movie theatre in Milwaukee. It opened in 1915 and has been a movie theatre ever since! It may have a tile front now and a different marquee, but at its heart it is still a fine old movie theatre. 

The second theatre shown here is the inside of Riverside Theater, located at 116 W Wisconsin Ave, opened in 1928 as a live performance center, and was a first-run movie theatre in the 1950s. Today, it is once again a live music and performance venue with a capacity of 2,450 people. 

The third theatre shown here is the crème de la crème: the Warner Grand Theatre, located at 212 W. Wisconsin Ave. This theatre was opened in 1931 in place of the opulent Butterfly Theatre that once stood in its location. The theatre cost $2.5 million to build and was considered the most beautiful in the city. It continued as a movie theatre until the mid-1990s when it closed. In 2017, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) purchased the theatre and renovated it back to its original glory. The theatre opened again in 2021 as the home of the MSO now called the Bradley Symphony Center, and it is gorgeous! 

There are other movie palaces still in use in Milwaukee, too, like the famous Oriental Theatre on the East Side, which underwent its own renovation in recent years, and the Avalon Theater in Bay View, which offers an “atmospheric” experience with a starry sky lit in the ceiling in the main theatre. 

All of the images in black and white are from Milwaukee Movie Palaces by Larry Widen and Judi Anderson, published in 1986 by Milwaukee County Historical Society. 

These theatres are part of Milwaukee’s history as well as a part of their present! I highly recommend visiting any one of them for a movie or performance soon. 

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

[uwmspeccoll]

414 Day

Today’s date is 4/14, which is known around these parts as 414 Day or Milwaukee Day because 414 is the area code for the Milwaukee area! This year we’re celebrating with a series of walking tours of Milwaukee’s East, South, and West sides (shown here in that order) called A Walk in the City. 

These walking tours were published in 1981 by Libraries for Milwaukee, a group/program I can’t seem to find much information about, other than that they were awarded an NEH Grant in 1980/1981 “To support five programs on themes of interest to Milwaukee's residents, especially working people, ethnic communities, and neighborhood groups. The project will include public forums, media presentations, neighborhood tours, and guides to library collections.”

Each walking tour provides line drawings of important or exemplary buildings along the route, explaining the history behind each. Buildings featured include the likes of Oriental Theater, Polish flats, and North Avenue taverns. 

No matter what part of the city you’re from, there’s always a good walk waiting for you just outside your door!

View our previous 414 Day posts.

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager