Bay View Village.

Although the mill was the focal point of the community, legend has it that the town itself was named for the beautiful view of the water from Elisha Estes' brick house high on the bluffs above Lake Michigan. Homes the workers lived in were far more modest - company built houses all of a plain style, built for use and not for beauty. The mill complex comprised about 27½ acres, and an additional 76½ acres were platted into small lots. About half of the residents were able to purchase a lot "on easy terms" from the company. In three years the community went from just 24 tenant houses to over 200 homes with a variety of stores, five churches and a public school.

The Petelles bought a home along the banks of a stream which led into Deer Creek, a popular swimming hole in the summer and a skating pond when it iced over in the winter. The sprawling Rolling Mill lay about a half mile to the north on the shores of the majestic Lake Michigan.

Several churches were built on parcels donated by the mill owners. The beneficiaries included the town's first congregation, the Bay View Methodist church, who received a lot on Bishop Street, and the Roman Catholic St. Mary's Church of the Immaculate Conception who built a "substantial wooden structure" at Russell and Kinnickinnic. The church played a significant role in their lives.

Initial deed restrictions imposed by the company prohibited the sale or manufacture of "intoxicating liquors" in the area, and Edesse may have wanted to keep her boys away from village boundary at Lincoln Avenue where the strip of saloons began. After all, Milwaukee was home to a number of breweries.

With the Industrial Revolution modes of transportation changed from wagons and sails to steam powered trains and ships, the transatlantic cable reduced the time to communicate with the Old World from over a week to a few minutes, and goods once laboriously made by craftsmen were mass produced. Many new jobs were available in town, drawing people into the cities. All of which transformed the life of the everyday man.

The worth of a community was often measured in the number of factories it encompassed. The History of Milwaukee, published in 1881, describes early Bay View thusly: "For three years the smoke of the furnaces hung like a cloud over the village by day, and the light shone as a pillar of fire by night, a sign of the unceasing labor, and the unceasing reward of the industrious and prosperous villagers."