The Milwaukee Post

September 18, 2015 • Milwaukee County Post • 15 Blowing the doors off Milwaukee DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE By DAN MUCKELBAUER Post Editor MILWAUKEE — People love free or a deal. And they're naturally curious, especially about their sur- roundings. Therein lie the secrets to success for Doors Open Milwaukee. "Free is a big a thing," said Christianna Niemiec, Historic Milwaukee Inc. pro- gram manager. The public can visit 176 sites for free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Milwaukee County. People can go on nine free tours with two tickets for any one of the tours avail- able at City Hall when doors open at 9 a.m. Saturday and 39 in-depth tours for $5 each, online only, and several are sold out. In the process, they can learn how Milogranite is made (Jones Island) and where the only rope long enough for rescue at the tallest building in the state is kept (Milwaukee Fire Station No. 12, 2130 W. Oklahoma Ave.). "The Milwaukee Blacksmith is always a big draw. He's really cool. It's such a lost art, really, and it's not something you see every day — a blacksmith at work," Niemiec said of the Third Ward workshop, which she said harkens back to the arty-upscale neigh- borhood's industrial roots. They can see beautiful churches like St. Stanislaus on the South Side, trendy condos at the newly added The North End, 1551 N. Water St., along the Milwaukee River, a six-lane bowling alley at the Falcon Bowl in Riverwest or behind the scenes at Bryant Cocktail Lounge, home to 500 cocktails on historic Mitchell Street. And it's not just the city. From Hales Corners to Wauwatosa to the North Shore to Oak Creek, there are things to see and do. It's almost kind of crazy. There are even four sites that had music composed for them and they'll be per- formed Saturday (check page 4 of the downloadable pdf at www.doorsopenmil- waukee.org). One way to bring in order is with the Family Passport, which covers 24 of the sites, including Milwaukee City Hall, 200 E. Wells St., which isn't a bad, albeit crowded, place to start. "Families can get a little overwhelmed, so that's good that way to help them out," said Amy Grau, Doors Open Milwaukee program manag- er. Kids can get the pass- ports stamped at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, Jones Island, the Milwaukee Fire Museum at 1615 W. Oklahoma St., the Milwaukee Police Acemy, 6680 N. Teutonia Ave., the Safe Houase, 779 Front St., and the Wells Street Vertical Lift Bridge, 101 E. Wells St., to name a few. Who you go with can cer- tainly dictate where you wind up. "If I'm going with my family it is way different than if I'm going with my husband," Grau said. She suggested starting near where you live and working your way in and picking up a Doors Open Milwaukee map at any of the sites. Among possible starting places: the Eschweiler build- ings on the County Grounds in Wauwatosa or the Robert A. Anderson Water Tower at 4001 S. Sixth St., Milwaukee. And there's The Go Game, basically an electron- ic scavenger hunt using a smartphone. It can get peo- ple around the county by going to thegogame.com/doorsopen. Niemiec suggested pick- ing a theme. "Like one year do public buildings or just churches or nature centers," she said. "If you had to pick one site to see it would be City Hall," Grau said. "It has the art, it has the music, it has the mayor. The Common Council president, Michael Murphy, will be giving tours." But it's hard to pick one. Last year's most popular site was the US Bank obser- vation tower. "It's the only time the general public can go and check out the tallest build- ing in Wisconsin. And 8,000 attended last year. It blows all the rest out of the water," Grau said. Submitted photo The view from the US Bank observation tower. It's one of the 176 sites open to the public Saturday and Sunday. Submitted photo The "Doors Open Milwaukee Art Exhibit" by The Dry Points, six Milwaukee Artists, is hung in the Milwaukee City Hall rotunda, but will be officially debuted on Saturday. Submitted photo Inside the Robert A. Anderson Municipal Building, 4001 S. Sixth St., Milwaukee. ENTERTAINMENT Countywide event includes tours and free entry to 176 sites

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