The history of Milwaukee's distinctive black-and-white address tiles

They adorn duplexes, businesses, bungalows and City Hall.

They have borne witness to children playing on porches, families moving in and out, and shops opening and closing.

They tell people where to go and when they’ve arrived.

Milwaukee’s black-and-white address tiles are distinctive and ubiquitous, the result of an effort to standardize the city’s street names and addresses in the 1910s.

But choosing the style of house numbers, as they were called, was a tortured process, according to Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel archives.

At one point, a reporter wrote: “This comparatively simple job of picking the best type of number plate for Milwaukee homes gets as much argument as a disarmament conference.”

Eventually, after a series of company bids and tests to make sure the numbers could withstand extreme heat, cold, hail and other forces, the Common Council selected ceramic tiles produced by a Kentucky-based company.

In 1930, city workers installed 550,000 tiles, including at City Hall, which displayed a number address for the first time.

Since then, the address tiles have withstood the test of time, becoming a symbol for the city.

It makes sense – the tiles are sturdy, practical, beautiful and resilient.

Just like Milwaukee.

See the rest of Milwaukee's 100 objects

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The history of Milwaukee's distinctive black-and-white address tiles