Frame worker cottages from the 1870s along a lakeside street grid, and the Kinnickinnic Avenue apartment Bridesmaids used as Annie's building.
What Bay View looks like
The residential streets run on a diagonal toward the lake, crossing the city's standard grid at multi point intersections. One storey gable roofed cottages line , some still in original wood clapboard and others resided in vinyl, set close to the sidewalk behind narrow yards. Farther down the same street, the is a two storey white clapboard house from 1870, with a wraparound porch and a bay window.
is the commercial spine, two and three storey brick storefronts with painted signage and cloth awnings over the sidewalk. The 's marquee tower rises over the avenue, a Mediterranean Revival movie house from 1929.
A few blocks off the avenue, older buildings stand on their own. is a two storey dark green wood building with a painted sign over its door. On East Russell Avenue, keeps its name painted directly onto red brick, an Italian flag over the entrance.
The grid ends at a bluff above Lake Michigan in South Shore Park. The is a brick building with arched windows and doors under a red tile roof, at the top of the rise. The downtown skyline is visible to the north across open water.
Shot in Bay View
For Bridesmaids, the production filmed the apartment exterior at Kinnickinnic Avenue and Homer Street as a real Milwaukee building rather than a set. It is one of three real Milwaukee addresses the production used, on a film shot almost entirely in Los Angeles.
Bridesmaids, 2011
The exterior is a real apartment building at Kinnickinnic Avenue and Homer Street, the address where Annie stays with her odd roommate Gil and his sister. It is one of three Milwaukee addresses the production used, on a film shot mostly in Los Angeles. Street View
Frame mill worker cottages built one and two storeys high sit on narrow streets across Cabbagetown, close to the same scale as the cottages on South Superior Street. Cabbagetown's houses run in a shotgun plan and many are painted in bright folk art colors, so a muted palette and a straight on angle hold the period better than a wide street shot. Try searching frame mill worker cottages now.
Modest frame dock worker houses line narrow streets close to Lake Erie in the Old First Ward, at a similar scale to the frame cottages on South Superior Street. The First Ward's grain elevators loom in many wide shots, so keep the camera low and close on the housing blocks to avoid giving the skyline away. Try searching modest frame dock worker houses now.
Lincoln Park in Duluth, Minnesota
Older frame houses climb a hillside grid toward Lake Superior in Lincoln Park, echoing a street grid that runs down to a lake bluff. Duluth's houses run taller and heavier in the Craftsman style and the grade is steeper, so a single storey block shot straight on holds the comparison better than a hillside wide shot. Try searching older frame houses now.
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