For the first time ever, the leaves are falling on the Streets of Old Milwaukee.
Yes, from Sept. 19 until Nov. 4, the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Streets of Old Milwaukee will experience autumn.
There will be seasonal props and replica turn-of-the-century Halloween decorations adorning the streets, which were created to recreate Brew City during the period of 1898 to 1905.
Expect candy corn for sale in the Haymarket candy store, plus fake candy apples on display, handmade replica turn-of-the-century children’s orange and black rattles in the toy store and vintage Halloween postcards more than 120 years old in the printing shop.
“Halloween decorations at the turn of the 20th century were creative and creepy, but far less elaborate and gory than what we see today,” says MPM’s Exhibit Maintenance Specialist & Artist Nancy Kruschke.
“How-to books encouraged people to create their own decorations using supplies they had around the house. Crepe paper was also a popular material for decorations and used to create colorful streamers, life-size cornstalks, wall artwork and more.”
The evening chill has moved Granny inside, where she typically spends the colder months with her granddaughter, and this autumn, they’re hosting a Halloween party.
“Granny’s parlor is decked out with Halloween-themed crepe paper artwork, bats and streamers, as well as carboard box lanterns created to mimic the arts-and-crafts-style decorations common back then,” says Kruschke.
“Her granddaughter is wearing an authentic vintage Halloween party hat, and Granny is holding a copy of the horror classic ‘Frankenstein’ for late-night reading.”
Watch the OnMilwaukee Facebook page on Tuesday, Oct. 1 around 11 a.m. as my monthly Facebook Live at Milwaukee Public Museum will feature a walkthrough of the autumnal Streets.
As always, the Streets will be decorated for the holidays later in the year.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
