West Allis, Wisconsin

West Allis is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. A suburb of Milwaukee, it is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 60,411 at the 2010 census.

History

The name West Allis derives from Edward P. Allis, whose Edward P. Allis Company was a large Milwaukee-area manufacturing firm of the late 19th century. In 1901 the Allis company became Allis-Chalmers, and in 1902 it built a large new manufacturing plant west of its existing plant. The locale in which the new plant was built was at the time called North Greenfield, and prior to the 1880s had been called Honey Creek. With the building of the western Allis plant, the area was incorporated as the Village of West Allis, and it became the City of West Allis in 1906.

With the presence of Allis-Chalmers, the largest manufacturer in the area, West Allis became the largest suburb of Milwaukee in the early 20th century. After that, West Allis grew quickly. Between 1910 and 1930, its population grew fivefold. After 1965, the Allis-Chalmers company's fortunes had turned. By 1985, Allis-Chalmers's global workforce had shrunk to 13,000 from its peak of 31,000. Since then, West Allis has had some success attracting other employers, such as Quad Graphics.