My Block: Lannon is the fastest growing municipality in the state

LANNON — Small-town life is often rich with community spirit and a special charm. There's the local bar, everyone's favorite restaurant, and the park everyone visits on the weekend. A common thread is tight-knit neighborhoods where everyone knows each other. These towns are hidden gems. But one of those hidden gems is slowly losing its secret status.

“Raising my family in a small community is what I wanted to do. My husband and I have 5 kids and just living in the city wasn’t for us," Amy Martin, a lifelong resident of the Village of Lannon said.

For decades, Lannon, Wisconsin has been off most people’s radars.

“Surprised to find that there was a Village of Lannon. And my first visit at the school I realized it was an actual place with actual people, and its been wonderful ever since," Brian Balfany, the principal of Lannon Elementary said.

The only people who seemed to know about the Waukesha County village were miners and their families. Lannon has been a mining town since the 1800s. There are four quarries in about a mile radius around Good Hope Road and Lannon Road. Mining has been the main economic driver for decades.

“We’re scraping off of what mother nature left here, and we’re turning them into the start of everyone’s roads, and houses, and churches, and hospitals, and schools that all of us use," Nate Swinton, the development director for Lannon Stone Product, a mining company, said.

For a village that hasn't experienced much change in the past century, it's in the middle of a boom - not one coming from quarry blasts.

“When I was a kid our street sign said population 924. Today the population is about 2,100," Amy Martin said.

U.S. Census

Lannon, Wisconsin is the fastest-growing village in the state. It had the highest percentage growth rate of any municipality over the last four years - 61.99 percent, according to the Wisconsin Demographics Services Center, a branch of the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Current population estimates for Lannon are 2,195 people. Back in 2020, that number was 1,355.

“I think they have discovered this hidden gem that is Lannon," Katie Streblow, one of the newer residents, said.

The town is beginning to change as new businesses, bigger schools, and new neighbors move into the area.

For the 30th My Block episode, I met with Amy Martin to learn about the Village of Lannon through her eyes and experiences. Everywhere we went, and who we talked to was all up to her. I wanted to learn what the Village of Lannon was like, who was moving in, and how current residents feel about the growth. Welcome, to Amy's neighborhood.

Amy Martin, Lannon's Biggest Fan

Amy Martin lives and breathes Lannon. The 44-year-old was born and raised here. In fact, her children are 5th-generation Lannon residents. Her husband also grew up in the village. It was an easy decision on where they wanted to raise their kids.

She came up with the town's logo and slogan when she was in the 4th grade, and it's still used today. The slogan is 'Built on Solid Ground' which is a node to the village's mining history and how hard Lannon stone is. (The village and the stone miners excavate are named after William Lannon, an Irish settler who built a community in the area.)

James Groh

Martin is even the village's historian. She has compiled photos of Lannon and its residents dating back to the 1800s. She has chronicled the story of the village and is helping shape its future. She has held positions such as a firefighter, village trustee, and cemetery sexton for Sunnyside Cemetery.

"I love the Village of Lannon plain and simple. I love living here. I love working here. I love being part of the community, and (historical research) is just another way to give back," she said.

To begin the tour of the village, she had us start in the cemetery.

“It’s the oldest business that operates in Lannon today. We’ve been here since 1847," she said. “There’s more people buried here than there are in the Village of Lannon.”

More than 3,600 people are buried in the cemetery. Martin has had to expand the cemetery since there is a growing need for burial space. Like the cemetery, the village is also expanding.

James Groh

"New businesses are coming to town. We have restaurants, a meeting hall, and so much more to offer residents in the area. We have brand-new condos, apartments, and new housing to bring new people into Lannon," she said.

Those new homes are being built on unused farmland and fields.

“I think the attraction is that it’s still a small town near the bigger cities, near the entertainment, near whatever you need to get to, but you still have that community feel here."

To give this growth some context, the second highest growth rate of any municipality is Blackwell, which is near Rhinelander with a 39.47 percent growth rate. The population increased from 152 to 212. Here are the 15 municipalities that experienced the highest percentage growth rate from 2020 to 2024. Find the full list here. References to 'In Multiple Counties' means that certain municipality boundaries may span across multiple counties, according to the state.

After expressing her love for the Village of Lannon and telling us about its history, Martin took me to meet one of the newer residents. This new neighbor exemplifies the future of the village.

Katie Streblow, A New Wave of Neighbors

Katie Streblow has lived in Lannon for nine years. She is the HOA president for the Whispering Ridge sub-division. It's one of the new neighborhoods built in the past decade.

Streblow and her husband moved here for primarily one reason - the school district. Lannon is part of the Hamilton School District. It is comprised of parts of Sussex, Menomonee Falls, Pewaukee, and Lannon.

James Groh

“Our oldest daughter was going to be starting school. I did love the community that we were in, but I knew how wonderful the Hamilton School District was, and we started looking for houses in this area," Streblow said.

The family lived in Wauwatosa before moving to Lannon.

“Wauwatosa was a wonderful community, but it was getting so busy with the traffic, and there was less space. I just wanted to be able to expand when we needed to," she said.

The Streblow family now has multiple children enrolled in the Hamilton school district.

“Lannon is just a place that feels like home. It’s a safe, warm, welcoming community where you want to raise your kids," she said.

James Groh

She represents the new wave of people moving to an area many didn't know existed.

"I don't think that many of the new people that live here now knew about Lannon or heard of Lannon before their realtor said hey I've got this perfect house for you," Amy Martin said.

With more families coming to town, schools are seeing an increase in enrollment. That has led to some big changes within the district.

Brian Balfany, An Expanding School District

James Groh

“Our capacity was 280 students when I arrived, and we are at 350 now. We are using every space available to us for instruction," Brian Balfany, the Lannon Elementary principal said.

Balfany said the growth is good for the district, but that means there is a new set of challenges.

“The increased population has increased enrollment, and we went through a referendum, which will lead to some new construction in the coming months where we are adding to our school.”

The district passed a $25 million referendum. The elementary school will get more classrooms, a conference room, a maker space, updated special education facilities, and reconfigure the traffic situation to allow for more efficient dropoffs and pickups.

“It wasn’t a need for major upgrades. We really presented this as what it was—a need for space," Balfany said.

The growth has been so substantial the district had to build a new school just for 5th and 6th graders four years ago.

“They took 5th grade out of all the elementary schools and opened up a 5th and 6th-grade building to give us some space at all of the elementary schools. And then they took 6th grade out of the middle school to put an ease on the middle school. So there was a brand new building that opened about 4 years ago Silver Spring Intermediate," Balfany said.

Elsewhere across the district, multiple schools are reconfiguring their traffic situations along with new cafeterias and classroom renovations.

“We’re excited about the growth. We’re excited about the new families that people have really bought into kind of this feel of small school small town community."

Nate Swinton, The Quarries

James Groh

You can’t do a story on Lannon without visiting the quarries.

Lannon Stone is a type of limestone. Mining for Lannon Stone was the first industry in the village and continues to be a major employer. Lannon stone is known for being significantly hard. Lannon Stone Product uses it for large-scale construction projects like roads, houses, churches, hospitals, and schools.

“You know, the ball field downtown, the new highway expansion, or all these different things that everyone in our state recognizes. They came out of our pits," Nate Swinton, the development director for Lannon Stone Product said.

James Groh

The other major companies quarrying for Lannon Stone are Lemke Stone, Halquist Stone, and Monacelli Stone.

“As soon as the early settlers came in the 1840s, 1850s Lannon Stone was found right away," Amy Martin said. “Nobody would have came to this community ever if it wasn’t for the quarries.”

At Lannon Stone Product, they can fill large mining trucks with 80-100 tons of stone every 90 seconds. In total, they can do about 1,000 tons an hour.

“So it’s just an ideal area to get rock out of the ground where it’s so shallow, really thick deposits, and the rock holds up super well. There’s a lot of 100-year-old structures that came out of these pits," Swinton said.

Lannon Stone is a finite product. These quarry operators know that. For example, Lannon Stone Products quarry on Good Hope Road has about 100 to 120 more years of mining left, according to Swinton. Given that, the company has already started measures to usher the quarry into its final phase. They've planted trees around the quarry to eventually turn it into a park.

“The last stage of a mine and actually we kind of do this as we go but the final stage is to reclaim this for the community," Swinton said. "We want, when we’re done with the pit, to turn this into a park. And we don’t want it to be a park 50 years later. We want it to be a park six months later."

At the end of its life, the company will turn off the draining pumps and let Mother Nature fill the quarry with water. It will turn into a lake similar to Lannon Pond in Menomonee Park.

James Groh

One Final Question

As is tradition, the last word is always given to the tour guide of the My Block story. In this episode that's Amy Martin.

Before that happens, here is how you can be part of the award-winning series. Reach out to me, James Groh, to nominate your neighborhood or a neighbor to be featured in the next story. You can fill out this submission form or contact me at james.groh@tmj4.com or call/text at (414) 254-8145. The series covers all types of neighborhoods and communities. Previous examples include stories on life in the Sherman Park neighborhood, a rural town that emphasizes hiring people with disabilities, how one woman is keeping a watchful eye on her neighborhood, how Hmong culture in Wisconsin is changing, how Latino immigrants adapt to life in Milwaukee, and many more. Watch one of the 29 other My Block stories here.

Now, back to the person who showed us the Village of Lannon, Amy Martin.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say about your neighborhood?" I asked.

“I welcome anybody to come to Lannon, move to Lannon, come out to eat in Lannon, just visit us here. It’s a great community and everyone will welcome you," Martin said.

It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.

Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.

Report a typo or error