Editing Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
The lush [[Menomonee Valley]] of the Wauwatosa area provided a key overland gateway between the rich glacial farmland of southeastern Wisconsin and the [[Port of Milwaukee]]. In 1835, Charles Hart became the first Euro-American to settle here, followed that year by 17 other families. The following year a United States Road was built from Milwaukee through Wauwatosa, eventually reaching [[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]]. Charles Hart built a mill in 1845 on the [[Menomonee River]] which gave the settlement its original name of "Hart's Mill." The mill was torn down in 1914.<ref>Milwaukee Journal, July 12, 1914</ref>

The [[civil township|Town]] of Wau-wau-too-sa was created by act of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature on April 30, 1840. As of the 1840 [[United States Census|census]], the population of the Town of Wau-wau-too-sa or Wauwatosa was 342.<ref>Watrous, Jerome Anthony, ''Memoirs of Milwaukee County: from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Milwaukee County,'' Chicago: Western Historical Association, 1909; Volume 1, pp. 69-70</ref> The town government was organized in 1842. The town's borders originally extended from the present-day Greenfield Avenue in the south to Hampton Avenue in the north, and from 27th Street in the east to the [[Waukesha County, Wisconsin|Waukesha County]] line in the west, encompassing sections of present-day Milwaukee, West Milwaukee and [[West Allis, Wisconsin|West Allis]], plus the southern part of former [[North Milwaukee, Wisconsin|North Milwaukee]], which was wholly annexed into the city of Milwaukee in 1927. Most of the town was farmland through the remainder of the 19th century.

[[File:WI-Wauwatosa-1892.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Wauwatosa in 1892]]

In 1849 the [[Milwaukee-Watertown Plank Road|Watertown Plank Road]] was constructed through Wauwatosa, mainly following the old Madison territorial road. In 1851 Wisconsin's first railroad (later [[The Milwaukee Road]]) established Wauwatosa as its western terminus. The Village of Wauwatosa was incorporated from the central part of the Town of Wauwatosa in 1892, and was rechartered as the City of Wauwatosa on May 27, 1897.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://192.159.83.40/SOS/pdf/THEOSOS_014/images/00008816.pdf |title=City of Wauwatosa Incorporated May 27, 1897 Under General Law, Recorded Misc. Rec. Vol. 5, PG. 397; Boundary Description |access-date=2007-04-08 |author=Village of Wauwatosa |publisher=Office of the Secretary of State of Wisconsin |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070704221400/http://192.159.83.40/SOS/pdf/THEOSOS_014/images/00008816.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-07-04}}</ref>

[[File:wauwatosavillage1.jpg|thumb|235px|right|Robertson Ace Hardware Building; one of the original buildings in Wauwatosa]]

===Expansion ===
On November 25, 1952, the City of Wauwatosa more than doubled its size by [[annexation|annexing]] {{convert|8.5|sqmi|abbr=off|sp=us}} of land west of the [[Menomonee River]], the entire remaining portion of the Town of Wauwatosa,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wauwatosa.net/index.aspx?NID=1021 |title="City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin: History: 1952" City of Wauwatosa website |access-date=2014-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314175059/http://www.wauwatosa.net/index.aspx?NID=1021 |archive-date=2018-03-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which became the home to several large cold storage and regional food distribution terminals. Industrial plants owned by firms including [[Harley-Davidson]] and [[Briggs & Stratton]] were also constructed.

In the past 40 years, western Wauwatosa has become an [[edge city]] with an important commercial and retail district built up along Milwaukee's beltline [[Highway 100 (Wisconsin)|Highway 100]] and anchored by the [[Mayfair Mall]].

===Removal of cross===
In 1992, Wauwatosa received some national attention when the Wauwatosa Common Council, threatened with a lawsuit, decided to remove a [[Christian cross]] from the City's seal that had been adopted in 1957. The cross was replaced with the text "In God We Trust".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Thatcher |first=Betsy |date=1992-12-16 |title=Tosa council drops cross from emblem Quadrant of shield will be plain red field |pages=6 |work=[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]] |url=https://0-infoweb-newsbank-com.countycat.mcfls.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D8DE8DE83992E4A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F0EB827601123672B |url-access=registration |access-date=2023-11-23 |via=[[NewsBank]]}}</ref>

The seal itself had originally been designed by 9-year old Suzanne Vallier as an entry in a contest among Wauwatosa schoolchildren. The quadrants of the logo's shield represented, from top left going clockwise: an arrowhead representing the Indians who were the original inhabitants of the city; the mill representing Hart's Mill which was the original name of the city; the cross representing the "city of churches"; and the symbol used on street signs representing the "city of homes".<ref>{{cite journal |work=Milwaukee Journal |date=1957-04-12 |title=Suzanne Vallier Wins Wauwatosa Logo Contest }}</ref>

===2020 shootings===

On February 2, 2020, Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old [[African-American]] male, was [[Killing of Alvin Cole|shot and killed]] at [[Mayfair Mall]] by a police officer responding to a reported disturbance. According to authorities, Cole had been fleeing from police while carrying a stolen handgun. No charges were filed against the officer who fired the fatal shots, sparking protests.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|last=Richmond|first=Todd|title=Protests spark in Wisconsin after police officer not charged for death of Black man|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7385485/wisconsin-alvin-cole-shooting-police-protests/|access-date=November 21, 2020|website=Global News|agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

On November 20, a [[Mayfair Mall shooting|shooting]] occurred at the mall, leaving eight people injured. The shooter fled the scene afterwards and remained at large for a day,<ref>{{cite news |title=Eight people injured after shooting at Mayfair Mall, suspect still at large |first=Rusty |last=Mehlberg |date=November 20, 2020 |publisher=[[WTMJ-AM]] radio station |url=https://wtmj.com/news/2020/11/20/breaking-shots-fired-at-mayfair-mall/ |access-date=November 20, 2020}}</ref> until the arrest of a 15-year-old suspect.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Ivan Pereira |author2=Joshua Hoyos |author3=Greg Bradbury |title=Teenager charged in connection with Wisconsin mall shooting |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/teenager-charged-connection-wisconsin-mall-shooting/story?id=74350187 |date=November 22, 2020 |website=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |access-date=July 20, 2022}}</ref>