Georgia Didier, “The History of Brady Street’s St. Hedwig’s Church and How It Preserved Yet Integrated the Polish Population into the City of Milwaukee”
Mentor: Sean Kafer, Film, Video, Animation, & New Genres
Oral Presentation Union E220 9:00am
In the mid to late 1800s, Polish immigrants settled on the eastern side of Milwaukee’s Brady’s Street. On the corner of Brady Street and Humboldt Avenue, this community built a small wooden church; St. Hedwig’s. In 1886, this building was reconstructed into a beautiful structure with cream city brick and remarkable stained glass windows. With its alluring architecture, St. Hedwig’s Church stands tall today as a historical landmark and holds relevance with docUWM’s current project surrounding Brady Street. There were various methods used to collect information for this study. I read material from local historians and I collected and examined past interview footage and B roll of the location and its subjects. These subjects include Father Kitzke, the priest of St. Hedwig’s, along with Frank Alioto, the neighborhood historian of Brady Street. Frank Alioto provided docUWM with old photographs of the church. I scanned various photos and arranged them on a timeline with the footage I reviewed, along with additional B roll of the area I filmed with my colleagues. The most significant findings I discovered throughout this research process was by means of interviews; Alioto and Kitzke speak about Polish immigration and how St. Hewig’s helped preserve Polish culture while still pushing the community to integrate and learn the English language. Alioto and Kitzke complement each other’s interviews appropriately as Alioto’s interview describes an event that hence shaped the current state of the parish’s position in the community that Kitzke speaks so passionately of. These findings are important as they are relevant to include in docUWM’s feature film in collaboration with the Business Improvement District (BID) of Brady Street, “The Brady Street Neighborhood Documentary”. I believe that my research will have a constructive impact on this documentary as it relies heavily on historical accounts.