The area around Falls Road and Twelfth Avenue was originally known as Milwaukee Falls, and the location of the dam and millrace, removed in 2000, attracted several manufacturers over the years. A chair factory was built there in 1848, the same year Wisconsin became a state, and it continued operating as a furniture manufacturer until 1873. In 1893, the Sheboygan Knitting Co. began producing yarn in the plant for its parent firm, the Wisconsin Chair Co. of Port Washington, which had been established in 1888. The factory was known by several names during its existence, including the Milwaukee Chair Co. and the Northern Chair Co. By the early 1900s, the plant was producing more than 40 dozen chairs daily, and several large boarding houses on Falls Road housed its workers. During the Great Depression, the company stopped leasing recording studios in New York and Chicago and instead operated its own Grafton studio from 1929 to 1932. Hundreds of musicians from Wisconsin and other states recorded there, including blues legends Charlie Patton, Skip James, Blind Blake, Son House, Willie Brown, and Big Bill Broonzy. The last record there was made in July 1932 by the Mississippi Sheiks, and the building was demolished in 1938.