Village of Brown Deer, Wisconsin
VILLAGE HISTORICAL PHOTOS

Click on the photos below to view a larger image.

(above) Brothers cutting & shocking oats about 1910 on the Pierner farm, located between N. 60th and 76th Streets and between W. County Line and W. Brown Deer Roads.

(above) A popular place to visit to "get away from the city rush" about the turn of the century - and before - was the Brown Deer Summer Resort, shown here on a postal card that was postmarked August, 1908. It later was called Schweitzer's tavern, then Augie's, and is now Prime Time Bar and Grill. The sender of the card wrote that crews were busy in the area "laying double tracks already for the street car." The inter-urban eventually ran between Milwaukee and Port Washington.

(above) Brown Deer General store (left), operated by E. F. Ladwig, dominated this "picture postcard" street scene. The date is unknown, but could be about 1900. The house at the right was raised in 1953. The tower in the background was a vat used by a pickle factory.

(above) Snow covered the intersection of W. Brown Deer Rd. and N. Green Bay Rd. in the scene appearing on a postcard that was postmarked February, 1910. The view looks east toward River Hills. At left foreground is the Otto Radke blacksmith shop and behind it the old school and the Radke home.

(above) Otto Radke and his son, Walter, operated a blacksmith shop in Brown Deer for many years. They are shown here in 1938, located on the northwest corner of old Brown Deer and North Green Bay Roads. The land first became private property in 1840 when the government sold it for $1.25 an acre.

(above) Bock beer was being featured the day these bartenders and customers posed for their photograph in Schweitzer's tavern at N. Green Bay and W. Brown Deer Roads about 1900.

(above) John Ekart's Tavern (now Larry's Market, 8737 N. Deerwood Drive) was a popular place - at least to stand in front of when being photographed. The sign identifies the business as a "gasthaus zum bairischenhaus" (guesthouse, moreover Bavarian house) and Ekart as "eigenthumer" (proprietor). The tavern - obviously - sold Jung's lager beer. Note the board walk, iron pipe rail for hitching horses, and the generally rural character of the clothing. Date of this photo is about 1900.

(above) Most Brown Deer residents might not know it, but their village once was an "aviation training center" before it became a village. Shown in this photo is the Holterhoff Flying Service, Inc., which was located in an open area between N. 51st and N. 55th Streets along W. Brown Deer Rd. (now Rosedale subdivision) from 1929 to 1954. In a circular promoting the airport, Fred Holterhoff described his business as "a modern school for commercial flying." He also offered American Eagles - "the fastest, strongest and safest aeroplanes in their class."