2821 N 4th St

Summary

Nunn-Bush Shoe Company Factory Complex
2821 North 4th Street, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County
Architect: Herman J. Esser
Dates of Construction: 1916 (original building); 1917, 1919, 1950-1953 (additions)

The Nunn-Bush Shoe Company Factory was the headquarters and primary manufacturing facility of the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company, one of the largest and longest-running manufacturers of leather shoes in Milwaukee. Established in 1912 as the Nunn, Bush, & Weldon Shoe Company with Henry Lightfoot Nunn (1878-1972) serving as President and General Manager, by 1930 Nunn-Bush was the second-highest producer of fine grade men’s shoes in the country.

The company opened its own purpose-built factory on North 4th Street in Milwaukee in 1916, and under Nunn’s leadership the company flourished through the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when many of the oldest and largest of Milwaukee’s shoe manufacturers were closing their doors, Nunn-Bush expanded its operations in Milwaukee, constructing large additions to the original factory building in 1917 and 1919 to keep up with demand. The company utilized the latest methods of shoe production, specializing in the design and production of fine men’s footwear at their Milwaukee plant after World War I.

Founder and president Henry Lightfoot Nunn credited the success of his company to a system of progressive democratic labor practices—including the Nunn Bush Cooperative Association, the Savings and Profit Sharing Fund, and the Share Production Plan—which he conceived and implemented at the Nunn-Bush Milwaukee plant. The company later established a second factory in Edgerton, Wisconsin in 1934, during the midst of the Great Depression, to produce lower-priced lines of dress shoes, but the company’s headquarters and main manufacturing operations remained in the 4th Street factory complex through the early 1970s.

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