'Giving us a light': Doors Open Milwaukee brings hundreds to businesses along King Drive
William Bachle said he often stands outside his home goods shop on King Drive to draw in customers.
Saturday, as the shop took part in the citywide open house Doors Open Milwaukee 2018, more than 400 people came to Nostalgia Home Decor, Bachle said.
Nostalgia Home Decor and a dozen businesses, churches and organizations along King Drive welcomed visitors Saturday and Sunday as a Doors Open spotlight neighborhood. In all, more than 170 sites across the city participated in the two-day open house.
Bachle said he hopes the people drawn into the neighborhood during Doors Open return.
"We love the neighborhood and it's been doing good things lately," he said."It's a shame to see all these great businesses, but nobody is willing to come in — for some reason people don't want to make the trip over."
Nostalgia Home Decor opened in May selling vintage furniture and home accessories. Bachle owns the shop with his girlfriend, Georgette Muilenburg. Bachle said people who visited Saturday remarked how much they liked the neighborhood.
"All it took was them coming down and seeing what's here," he said.
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James Flippin, a barber at Gee's Clippers, said King Drive and Bronzeville needed a reintroduction to Milwaukee like what was happening through Doors Open.
"It’s giving us a light because this was a rundown neighborhood for a long time," Flippin said. The basketball-themed barbershop Gee's Clippers moved from another location on King Drive to a former bank last year. The barbershop opened in 1992.
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"There were not that many businesses over here. You bring Pete's Market in and the development is happening and the people of the city are seeing it."
King Drive and the Bronzeville neighborhood are experiencing a resurgence with new development. Pete's Fruit Market opened a year ago in a building that had been vacant for five years. America's Black Holocaust Museum is reopening in the neighborhood. Other stops in the spotlight neighborhood included 5 Points Art Gallery & Studios, Glorious Malone's Fine Sausages and Pilcrow Coffee.
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Bader Philanthropies purchased a long-vacant building on the north end of King Drive, renovated it and moved in this summer.
Part of the organization's objective for moving its headquarters into the Harambee neighborhood was to bring visitors who don't normally go to that part of the city. Frank Cumberbatch, vice president of engagement for Bader Philanthropies, said one goal of the development is for people view the neighborhood as a critical part of the city.
With the development, Cumberbatch said, he wants to see the integrity of the neighborhood remain.
"We don’t want a community where those who used to live here are driven out because that would not be success," Cumberbatch said. "Success is all of us living together, and that is difficult but it’s important. We are going to do all that we can to see if we can achieve that."
Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Instagram @HauerSarah and Twitter @SarahHauer.