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Milwaukee was originally a nice, regular shape, save the gentle curve of Lake Michigan and a little rectangular bite from its northwest corner.
But to the chagrin of cartographers, the city limits expanded aggressively outward for more than a century, swallowing dozens of tracts large and small before the “Iron Ring” of suburbs around Milwaukee incorporated, reining in most of the city’s large-scale expansion.
The city also grew to the east, filling in acres of Lake Michigan to create the lakefront parks and dense industrial plots around the harbor.
Milwaukee County’s Original Townships
Granville
Milwaukee
Wauwatosa
Greenfield
Lake
Franklin
Oak Creek
