9 Places of Worship in Milwaukee

In its grandeur and opulence it is an excellent example of the so-called Polish Cathedral style of church architecture found in the Great Lakes region of North America.

Modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, it features one of the largest copper domes in the world. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Milwaukee Landmark.

Gesu Church is a Jesuit parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Milwaukee Landmark in 1975. 

Although the church is not affiliated with Marquette University, through a 1991 partnership, it ministers to the downtown campus of Marquette and surrounding neighborhood.

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church welcomes visitors to Sunday Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. to experience worship and take in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. As one of the architect’s last major commissions, the church didn’t open until 1961, two years after Wright had died. 

Believed to be the oldest medieval structure in the Western Hemisphere dedicated to its original purpose, this chapel stood for more than 500 years as part of a French estate and was moved to the U.S. stone- by-stone in the 1920s and to the Marquette University campus in the 1960s. Legend has it that Joan of Arc prayed before the early Gothic altar and kissed the stone where she stood, and that stone has forever remained colder than those that surround it.

Old St. Mary's Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was built in 1846 and 1847. The parish was founded a year earlier, by German Catholic immigrants. It was the proto-German church of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The city had been incorporated only the year before, and Wisconsin had not yet become a state. Old St. Mary's is the oldest church still standing in the city. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church is the oldest African-American congregation in the state, having been founded by former slave Ezekiel Gillespie in 1869. Gillespie was a seminal figure of his time; his lawsuit against the Milwaukee Election Commission made its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which ultimately led to Black Wisconsinites gaining the right to vote. The congregation’s first building was located on Kilbourn Avenue and Fourth Street, but worship has been held in its current building in the Arlington Heights neighborhood since 1969.

Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun is a Reform Jewish synagogue in River Hills, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1847.


Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun (CEEBJ) began in Milwaukee, in 1847, with 12 men who gathered at the home of Isaac Neustadel for a Yom Kippur service.

Old St. Mark's Episcopal Church building is located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and was built in 1858. The congregation moved to the present site on East Mill Street in 1978, previously used as a Pentecostal church. Old Saint Mark's on East Maple at North Lincoln Avenue was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Established in 1982, this facility, which houses the main offices of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee  main offices, has become the primary center for all Muslims in the Greater Milwaukee Area. The ISM estimates there are about 15,000 Muslims residing in the region, and so the ISM has expanded to include two additional facilities, as well as a healthcare center and an elementary school.