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Commission designates Central City Plaza as historic district after public testimony and staff report
Summary
The Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission voted to designate the Central City Plaza complex and its associated landscaping and parking as a historic district under multiple staff criteria after a lengthy staff report and public testimony; the motion passed 5–1.
The Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission voted to grant permanent historic-district status to Central City Plaza — a three‑building commercial complex at the northwest corner of Sixth and Walnut — after hearing a staff report and public testimony that highlighted the site’s importance to Black entrepreneurship and architecture.
Staff presented research tracing the complex’s origins to urban‑renewal projects of the 1960s and 1970s and argued the development was the first known Black‑conceived, -designed, -owned and -operated shopping center in Wisconsin. The staff report said Central City Plaza housed as many as 14 Black‑owned businesses and provided significant employment and commercial opportunity during an era when Black businesses represented a tiny share of the state’s firms.
The nomination cited multiple…
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