When you think about miniatures, what comes to mind? Tiny dollhouses? Model trains? While they’re often seen as cute toys, what if miniatures contained something bigger—like the history of immigration in a neighborhood?
As part of their most recent exhibit, Mitchell Street Arts created a miniature version of a real house in Milwaukee’s South Side neighborhood, as seen through two different eras of the home’s history. It’s meant to be a conversation starter about immigration, gentrification, cultural change, and what makes the South Side home.
Over the past 140 years, the area around Mitchell Street has welcomed waves of immigrants, including Germans, Poles, Norwegians, Soviet Jews, and, more recently, Hispanic and Middle Eastern families. What has stayed the same is the neighborhood’s houses–which led to the idea of making one in miniature.
“I think miniatures inspire a sense of wonder and awe in a way that is unique amongst a lot of other art forms,” says Rew Gordon, Executive Director of Mitchell Street Arts. “It’s a perfect entry point into talking about the melting pot that is our city.”
A Neighborhood-Wide Search
To find the right house to recreate, Mitchell Street Arts partnered with Dr. Jill Lackey of Urban Anthropology Center. Dr. Lackey’s team ventured across the near South Side, canvassing over 30 blocks to find a house whose style, lot size, and window dimensions might capture the essence of the neighborhood.
Once they had a list of potential addresses, they dove deep into the history of these homes, using databases from the Milwaukee County Historical Society and Ancestry.com. They uncovered fascinating details like who lived there, where they came from, how many children they had, and what work they did.
And then, they started work to build a miniature version of a duplex located at 1512/1514 S. 7th Street.
Two Families, Connected by a Home
The lower level of the miniature represents the 1950s, when the Polish-American Golec family lived there. Catherine Golec, a widow, shared the home with three of her six children.
The upper level depicts the 1985 home of the Acevedos, a Mexican-American family who lived in the house until 2010. The floors are filled with miniature furniture, outfitted to match each family’s story.
Mitchell Street Arts hopes that the miniature home can be a connector. So far, it’s having the intended effect. One visitor, a current renter of the house, was moved to tears by the exhibit.
“These are different periods and different groups of people, but we all have more in common than we realize. We’re living in the same kinds of units and making them our own,” says Bella Biwer, a local architect who helped to construct the miniature house. “I hope that it gives people a sense of belonging and pride in their community and their homes.”
The miniature house will be on display at Mitchell Street Arts through mid-March 2025, with additional programming around memory, community and documentation, including drop-in family photography sessions for neighbors.
The Milwaukee South Side Miniature Project was made possible in part by Arts Midwest’s GIG Fund. The GIG Fund provides flexible grants for nonprofit organizations to support programs and activities featuring professional artists.