Remember When...downtown streets weren't so busy?

Although the Model T had been on the market for over a decade, this downtown intersection scene from 1925 shows that Milwaukee streets were not yet automobile oriented. A horse drawn truck delivered goods for the Milwaukee Linen Supply Co. (whose motto, "Rent - Why Buy Linen," was printed on the side) amid auto traffic and electric streetcar paths. A variety of mechanical "traffic policemen" were being experimented with throughout the city, but this intersection, at Broadway and Wisconsin, had only a simple polelike affair to regulate traffic. The Miller Building in the background was torn down and replaced by the Wisconsin-Broadway Building in 1928. (Photograph and information from the Milwaukee Public Library local history collection.)