Kenosha

 

(kĭnō'shə) , industrial city (1990 pop. 80,352), seat of Kenosha co., SE Wis., a port of entry on Lake Michigan; inc. 1850. Transportation equipment, apparel, herbicides and fertilizers, electronics, food, machinery, and metal products are among the city's many manufactures. The first public school in the state was begun there in 1849. In the city are Carthage College, the Univ. of Wisconsin at Parkside, two museums, and a library designed by Daniel Burnham.

Kenosha, Wisconsin
Location of Kenosha within Wisconsin
Coordinates: 42°34′56″N 87°50′44″W / 42.58222, -87.84556
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
County	Kenosha
Settled	1836
Government
- Mayor	John M. Antaramian
Area
- City	sq mi (km²)
- Land	sq mi ( km²)
- Water	sq mi ( km²)
Elevation	ft ( m)
Population
- City
- Density	/sq mi (/km²)
- Metro
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Code	53140, 53141, 53142, 53143, 53144,
Area code(s)	262
FIPS code	55-392252
GNIS feature ID	15674163
Website: www.kenosha.org

Kenosha (pronounced [kəˈnoʃə]) is a city in, and the county seat of Kenosha County, and is the farthest north city in the Chicago metropolitan area.

With an estimated 2006 population of 96,240,^[1] Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin behind Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay. Kenosha lies on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, 32 miles south of Milwaukee and 50 miles north of Chicago, Illinois.^[2]

History

The greater Kenosha area is of high archeological interest since the discovery of pre-Clovis culture settlements in the late 20th century. These prehistoric settlements date to the approximate era of the Wisconsin glaciation.^[3] The Paleo Indians, as archaeologists call these peoples, first settled in the area at least 13,500 years ago.^[4]

The Potawatomi originally named the area gnozhé ("place of the Pike"). The first white settlers were part of the Western Emigration Company and arrived in the early 1830s from Hannibal and Troy, New York. As more settlers arrived and the first post office was established, the community was first known as Pike in 1836. In the ensuing years the area became an important Great Lakes shipping port, and the village was once again renamed, this time to Southport. ("Southport" is still the name given to a southeast-side neighborhood, park and elementary school as well as several businesses). In 1850, another change brought the growing city (and later Kenosha County) its current title, an Anglicized version of the early name gnozhé.^[5] Kenoshans often refer affectionately to their city as "K-Town", "K-Nowhere" and "Keno" (the latter often adopted over the decades on various local businesses and most notably on Kenosha's historic 1949 Keno Family Outdoor Theatre, Wisconsin's oldest drive-in theatre).^[6] Kenosha teenagers and those somewhat disaffected with the town often call it "Kenowhere," referring to the belief that there is little to do for amusement.

Kenosha has 21 locations listed on the National Register of Historic Places[3], among them are: WI Kenosha Library Park 711 59th Place, Manor House 6536 3rd Ave. Kenosha, McCaffary, John, House 5732 13th Court Kenosha, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church 5900 7th Ave. Kenosha, Kenosha Washington Park Clubhouse 2205 Washington Rd. Kenosha, Weed, Justin, House 3509 Washington Rd. and the Civic Center historic house.

In June of 1993, the City installed 'reproductions' of the historic Sheridan LeGrande street lamps that were especially designed for Kenosha by Westinghouse Electric in 1928; these can be seen on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 59th Streets.

Geography

Kenosha is located at 42°34′56″N, 87°50′44″W (42.582220, -87.845624).¹

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62.1 km² (24.0 mi²). 61.7 km² (23.8 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (0.63%) is water.

Kenosha's eastern boundary is Lake Michigan and is bordered by the towns of Somers and Bristol to the north and west respectively and the village of Pleasant Prairie to the south.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 90,352 people, 34,411 households, and 22,539 families residing in the city.

The population density was 1,465.1/km² (3,795.1/mi²). There were 36,004 housing units at an average density of 583.8/km² (1,512.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 83.64% White, 7.68% African American, 0.44% Native American, 0.99% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.83% from other races and 2.38% from two or more races. 9.96% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 34,411 households out of which 34.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them: 47.1% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present and 34.5% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city the population included 27.2% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 96.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.

Economy

Years ago a busy center of manufacturing, Kenosha is today largely a suburban "bedroom community" within the Chicago-Milwaukee megalopolis, most often attracting new residents from Illinois, which leads to Kenosha's appellation as Chicago's northernmost suburb. With several area transportation options, many residents commute to their places of employment, often beyond the borders of Kenosha County into Illinois.

Between 1902 and 1988 Kenosha produced millions of automobiles ^{[citation needed]}and trucks under such well-remembered marques as Jeffery, Rambler, Nash, Hudson, LaFayette, and American Motors Corporation (AMC). AMC once operated two assembly plants in the city until it merged into what was then the Chrysler Corporation in 1987. An engine plant for DaimlerChrysler remains, but the American Motors lakeshore assembly plant was demolished in 1989 and repatriated into upscale HarborPark. The plant's closing is documented in Kathryn Marie Dudley's "The End of the Line: New Lives in Postindustrial America." AMC's predecessor in the area, Nash Motors, was formed in Kenosha in 1916 by Charles W. Nash, for whom a 47-acre westside park and an elementary school, scheduled to open in the fall of 2007, are named [4]

The city's largest employer is the multi-level educational system.

Kenosha's largest private employer is located in Illinois at Abbott Laboratories 100 Abbott Park Road Abbott Park, Illinois 60064-3500, [5] which has recently purchased 400 acres in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin at Hwy C and I-94 [6].

Law and government

Kenosha has a mayor, considered to be the chief executive, and a city administrator, considered to be the chief operating officer. The mayor is elected every four years. The city's Common Council consists of 17 aldermen from each of Kenosha's 17 districts (each district having two wards), elected for two year terms in even-numbered years.

The mayor of Kenosha over four terms since April 1992 is John M. Antaramian; he is the longest serving mayor in the city's history.^[7] In late 2006, Antaramian was awarded the Robert B. Bell, Sr. Best Public Partner Award for his advocacy towards quality real estate development. He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,^[8] a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mayor Antaramian announced that he will not seek reelection in 2008 and sparked a flurry of political candidates. These candidates include Michael Bell, Sr., Pat Moran, Keith Bosman and local celebrity Scott Barter, who has his own cable access show, Kenosha Today.

Transportation

See also: Streetcars in Kenosha, Wisconsin

Kenosha has been served by rail service to and from Chicago since 10:30 am on Saturday, May 19, 1855, ^{[citation needed]} when the predecessors to the Chicago and North Western Railway, the Milwaukee and Chicago Railway Company (originally the Illinois Parallel Railroad) and the original Lake Shore Railroad (later the Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago Railway) were officially joined with great ceremony just south of today's 52nd Street. Passenger service began on May 28, 1866 and continues to the present day.

Kenosha has the only Metra station in Wisconsin, with nine inbound and nine outbound trains each weekday, although not all Union Pacific/North Line trains terminate and originate in Kenosha; most terminate at Waukegan, Illinois to the south.[7] Plans are underway to extend Regional Transportation Authority passenger service northwards from the Kenosha Metra Station through Racine County and into Milwaukee via the proposed KRM Line[8].^{[citation needed]}

Kenosha was the first city to color-code transit routes (with the Blue, Green, Red and Orange Lines) and the first city to utilize electric trolley buses in full transit service, both occurring on February 14, 1932.^[9]

Kenosha is served by the major expressway Interstate 94 between Chicago and Milwaukee, and also by Amtrak's Hiawatha Line service (via the Sturtevant station in Racine County) between Chicago and Milwaukee, which runs several times daily.

The street system in Kenosha is somewhat unusual; while numbered streets run east-west and numbered avenues run north-south as in many American cities, street numbering commences at Kenosha County's northern border (County Trunk Highway KR) rather than at the city's center. ('Roads' are diagonal thoroughfares, 'courts' are short north-south avenues, and 'places' are short east-west streets.) As such, the downtown area is in the area between 50th and 60th streets. Avenue numbers increase as one heads west from the lakefront. This numbering system continues through all of Kenosha County west ending with 408th Ave, while north-south roads end at the Illinois state line with 128th St. (Edmonton, Alberta has a similar numbering system.)

Culture

Museums

Completed in 2000, the Kenosha Public Museum is located on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Its main exhibit is a prehistoric Wooly Mammoth skeleton uncovered in western Kenosha in 1992, the bones revealing new clues about ancient American history; cut marks on the bones indicate that the animals were butchered by humans using stone tools. Carbon dating of those bones indicates their age to be 12,500 years old, one thousand years earlier than the previously accepted presence of humans in the Americas. The museum also displays other Ice Age and fine-art exhibits.^[10]

The Kenosha History Center is within the old City water treatment plant on Simmons island next to the 1866 Simmons Island light station, and showcases the history of Kenosha from the Indians and the first settlements to present day.

Kenosha's 59,000-square-foot Civil War Museum is under construction and is scheduled to open in the spring of 2008. It will offer an interactive experience in the role of six Midwestern states before, during and after the American Civil War.^[11]

The Dinosaur Discovery Museum, designated a federal repository, opened in August, 2006 within the historic Old Post Office adjoining the 56th Street streetcar line at Tenth Avenue, and includes an on-site paleontology laboratory operated through the Carthage College Institute of Paleontology.^[12]

The Kenosha Transit Carhouse at 724 54th Street which houses Kenosha's historic fleet of PCC streetcars is occasionally open for guided tours.

A Childrens Museum is also planned for the upper floors of the Orpheum Building on Sixth Avenue at 59th Street, currently occupied by the Laboratory Toy Store.

Music

Summer band performances have been Kenosha favorites for over eighty years ^{[citation needed]}, traditionally by the Kenosha American Legion Band (renamed the Kenosha Concert Band in 1963 and now the Kenosha Pops Concert Band.) Since 1988 the concerts have been at Kenosha's Sesquicentennial Bandshell in Pennoyer Park each Wednesday from June 14 to August 2. Admission is free, and it is recommended that attendees bring their own lawn blankets or seating.

The Kenosha Lakeshore Youth Philharmonic offers an intensive orchestral experience to middle school and high school musicians.

The Kenosha Vocal Arts program sponsors the Opera a la Carte evening concert series featuring middle school, high school and college singers.

Band-O-Rama is a citywide public-school concert held annually since the mid-1950s ^{[citation needed]}, and features the Kenosha Unified School District's grades 5-through-12 bands totaling about 1,700 students. It typically begins with the National Anthem by grades 7-12; then, each grade plays several selections. At the finale, the massed bands offer John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" (Sousa's band often gave concerts in Kenosha.) The KUSD music program has long been a national model, and its student concerts are led by guest conductors of world renown. The Band-O-Rama in particular usually sells over 3000 tickets over the weekend it is offered. Band-O-Rama is also held at Westosha/Central High School for the outlying school districts of Kenosha County but only includes grades 5-through-8.

The Kenosha Symphony Orchestra under Maestra Miriam Burns is highly regarded, and concerts are in the acoustically-correct Reuther Central Auditorium at Walter Reuther Central High School in downtown Kenosha.

Since 2002, the outdoor Peanut Butter and Jam Concert Series^[13] has been held every Wednesday in August. For 2007 the series has been changed and extended to every Thursday during the months of July and August with both a noontime and evening concert. Approximately three hundred attend each concert at Veteran's Memorial Park.

Lincoln Park Live! concerts began in 2005 on the Lincoln Park lawns near the Warren Taylor Memorial Gardens.

A number of outdoor jazz events are offered throughout the summer months, often at the historic Kemper Center.

The Kenosha CYO Band is one of several CYO Bands remaining in the country; the remainder are located along the East Coast ^{[citation needed]}.

Education

Kenosha is home to Carthage College with over 2,000 fulltime students, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside with 5,000 students, mostly commuters, and Gateway Technical College. (The three colleges operate their own on-campus radio stations.) Concordia University Wisconsin, Cardinal Stritch University and Marquette University all maintain Kenosha branch campuses.

Kenosha is served by the Kenosha Unified School District.^[14] The district has twenty-six public elementary schools, six middle schools and five major high schools: Mary D. Bradford High School, George Nelson Tremper High School, Indian Trail Academy, Lakeview Tech Academy, Reuther Central High School and Harborside Academy. Harborside Academy is a research school that uses the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound model and was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.^[15]

Eighty percent of Kenosha's fourth-graders score 'proficient' and 'advanced' on reading tests, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. Kenosha also has a number of faith-based schools and independent academies, including St. Joseph's High School, Armitage Academy, Kenosha Montessori School, Shoreland Lutheran High School, the Brompton Academy, the Dimensions of Learning Academy, the Christian Life School, and the LakeView Advanced Technology Center. A number of professional schools are located in the city.

The Kenosha Public Library is part of the Kenosha County Library System, and operates four locations throughout the city. Daniel H. Burnham designed the 1900 Beaux-Arts architectured Gilbert M. Simmons Library, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[16]

Media

Kenosha receives radio and television stations from Milwaukee and Chicago. Kenosha is considered a part of the Chicago radio market by Arbitron but a part of the Milwaukee television market by Nielsen. The majority of the Milwaukee and Chicago AM, FM and TV stations can be received in Kenosha. Five radio stations transmit from the Kenosha area: WLIP (1050 AM, Oldies), WGTD (91.1 FM, fine-arts/public radio/classics/jazz), WIIL (95.1 FM, mainstream rock and roll), WIPZ (88.5 FM [9], University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and WWDV (96.9 FM, simulcasting WDRV from Chicago) Kenosha also has a public access cable channel on channel 14, available to subscribers of Time Warner Cable.

The primary newspaper of Kenosha County is the Kenosha News, a 25,000 copy privately-owned broadsheet.

Other regional newspapers include the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Racine's Journal Times, Westosha Report, Happenings Magazine, Ranger News, and News Sun.

Sports and recreation

Golf

Kenosha has a number of championship^{[citation needed]} golf courses.^[17] Petrifying Springs Golf Course was named the "No. 1 Sporty Course in Wisconsin"^[18] The Washington Park Golf Course was dedicated on February 18, 1922, and its 1937 English-cottage clubhouse is a city landmark.^[19]

Parks

Kenosha is ringed by an emerald necklace of recreational city and county parks, and has eighteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline frontage, nearly all of which is public. The city has 74 municipal parks, totalling 781.52 acres^[20]

Kenosha's Washington Park includes the oldest operating velodrome in the United States (1927) at Washington Bowl. The Kenosha Velodrome Association sponsors American Bike Racing sanctioned races as well as training sessions at the "bowl" throughout the summer. Races are held on Tuesday evenings beginning in mid-May and continuing through August. Free seating is available on the inside of the track, and on important race days food and music is offered.

Notable Kenoshans

See also: List of Kenoshans

Many Kenosha citizens have achieved national and world renown in a variety of fields. On June 7, 1990 a Chicago Tribune feature article ("The Kenosha Connection") marveled at the large number of Kenoshans in the arts and sciences.^[21]

Rankings

Kenosha has received high rankings in several "Best-of" national surveys of American communities in recent year.

• In its 2005 survey of United States communities, Money listed Kenosha as 94th on its list of "Best Places to Live".^[22]
• The April 1997 Readers Digest ranked Kenosha in second place within its list of "Best Places to Raise a Family"^[23]
• Worldwide ERC rates Kenosha among the "Best Cities for Relocating Families" in the 500,000 to 250,000 metro population category.^[24]
• In 2005, the Milken Institute rated Kenosha as the 86th among the largest 200 metro areas in the United States in its "Best Performing Cities" list^[25]
• In May 2006, Inc. Magazine listed Kenosha at 45 on its "Hottest Midsize Cities" list.^[26]

Sister cities

Kenosha's four sister cities are:

• Cosenza, Italy (since 1979))^[27]
• Quezon City, Philippines (since 1986)^[28]
• Wolfenbüttel, Germany (since 1970))^[29]
• Douai, France (since 1981))^[30]

See also

• Aurora, Kenosha County, Wisconsin

References

1. ^ United States Census Bureau
2. ^ Measured as the crow flies using Google Earth, City center to City Center.
3. ^ Wasion, David. "The Mammoth Hunter: David Wasion's Quest for Pre-Clovis People in North America" The Citizen Scientist, 11 February, 2005
4. ^ Falk, Terrence. "Bones to Pick" Milwaukee Magazine, April 2004
5. ^ Origin of the name
6. ^ Keno Family Outdoor Theatre website
7. ^ John M. Antaramian biographical note, National Brownfield Association
8. ^ Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members.
9. ^ Canfield, Joseph M. TM: The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company, CERA Bulletin 112. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Assoc., 1972
10. ^ Kenosha Public Museum website
11. ^ "Hearts Touched by Fire: Museum of the Civil War" Published by the Kenosha Public Museum
12. ^ Gutsche, Robert Jr. "As Racine's Heritage Museum faces closure, Kenosha is a museum boomtown" Journal Times, October 27, 2005.
13. ^ [1]
14. ^ Kenosha Unified School District No. 1
15. ^ Harborside Academy
16. ^ Simmons Library, from the Kenosha Public Library
17. ^ [2] Kenosha County golf courses
18. ^ D'Amato, Gary. "Picking gems from experience". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 16, 2002
19. ^ Washington Park Golf Course on the City of Kenosha website
20. ^ City of Kenosha website: Parks Department
21. ^ "The Kenosha Connection" Chicago Tribune, 7 June 1990
22. ^ Money, "Best Places to Live 2005", accessed May 8, 2006
23. ^ "The Best Places to Raise a Family" Reader's Digest, April 1997, page 74.
24. ^ Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation"Best Cities for Relocating Families"
25. ^ Milken Institute. "2005 Best Performing Cities - 200 Largest Metros"
26. ^ Kotkin, Joel and Michael A. Shires. "Boomtowns '06: Hottest Midsize Cities". Inc. Magazine May 2006
27. ^ City of Kenosha website
28. ^ City of Kenosha website
29. ^ City of Kenosha website
30. ^ City of Kenosha website

External links

• Kenosha Convention and Visitors bureau
• City of Kenosha Municipal website

Coordinates: 42.58222° N 87.845624° W

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