George Putney was the first settler here in November 1836. The first log schoolhouse was built in 1839 near the present intersection of North Avenue and Brookfield Road. The first organized church was the present St. Dominic’s in 1843, the first Catholic church in the county, and Methodists began meeting here the following year. The Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad arrived at Brookfield Junction in 1851, and the Milwaukee, Watertown and Baraboo arrived in 1854; both later became part of the St. Paul and Pac. R.R. system. A depot built in 1853 was replaced in 1867 by the present one. The oldest of the many shopping centers is Brookfield Junction, whose postal name was Brookfield Centre; in the 1850s it drew the two railroads, hotels, stores, shops, a sawmill, and a post office, and it still retains much of the atmosphere and color of its early years. When Brookfield Square opened in 1967, it was one of the largest shopping centers in Wisconsin. Incorporated as a city in 1954, its 17 square miles were once part of the old Town of Brookfield, and City Hall was erected in 1960.