MILWAUKEE — Halyard Park is one of Milwaukee's many neighborhoods, but it looks a bit different. Large lots and quiet cul de sacs aren't always commonplace in inner-city neighborhoods but they are in Halyard Park.
"If I wanted to, I could've gone to the suburbs, but we chose here, because of the convenience of everything," Harrison Addison said.
Addison has been a resident of the neighborhood for 42 years, raising three children.
His home was an empty lot before he built it and Beechie O. Brooks helped him do it.
Watch: A plan to preserve history in the Halyard Park neighborhood
"I figure we owe a whole lot to Mr. Beechie," Addison said.
Brooks was a real estate developer who helped over 40 families secure financing to build houses in the neighborhood. Now that he has passed, his daughter tells his story.
"At the time it was built, (the neighborhood) was 100% Black," said Cassandra Brooks, Beechie's daughter. "He wanted families to have single-family homes with attached garages, with a suburban look."
But now, decades later, many original homeowners aren't around to pass on this history as new folks move in.
Cassandra doesn't want the memory of her late father to fade, so she's hoping to preserve it with this statue.
The Halyard Park Association Foundation has a preliminary plan but will need to raise around $125,000 for the entire project.
"It'll be a part of our history and legacy as well," Cassandra said.
That legacy, thanks to Beechie O. Brooks, gave an opportunity for Black home ownership in the neighborhood.
"When Beechie first took that step, all his friends and everything they thought 'Beechie you crazy, that's not gonna work, you crazy," Addison told TMJ4. "People even told me some of my friends 'I wouldn't put a quarter down in that ghetto,' but look at this ghetto now."
The neighborhood is now thriving.
If you want to learn more about the Halyard Park Association Foundation, you can reach out to them via email at HPAF1976@aol.com.
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