Hales Corners – A Suburb

The arrival of the Rapid Transit electric train in 1903 began Hales Corners’ transition from a farm village to a suburban community as people built homes there and commuted to Milwaukee for work, with downtown reachable in just 29 minutes. The first waiting station, a four-sided rain shelter, was built on this site, and the Rapid Transit served Hales Corners until 1951. As the village population grew, new services appeared, including a bank, a savings and loan, electricity for private housing, and a telephone exchange. Automobile dealers such as Rudolph Holz and Henry Schmidt replaced the carriage maker. The Bosch Hotel, built in 1904 with a ballroom on the second floor, accommodated Rapid Transit customers and still stands on the northwest corner of this intersection at Highway 100 and Janesville Road. A bank opened in the building north of the hotel, and other commercial buildings and homes sprang up along what was then Conrad Road, now Highway 100. Until 1917, Conrad Road extended only as far north as Edgerton Avenue. Completion of Highway 100 in 1935 created another route to Milwaukee and furthered urbanization. Hales Corners became an unincorporated village in 1927 to establish a tax district for street lighting, a sanitary district, and a fire department, although the sanitary district was not formed until 1940, and the village incorporated in 1952.

Hales Corners, Wisconsin · United States