Best Web Design in Waukesha, WI (2026)

Web Design for Waukesha, Wisconsin

Waukesha, the seat of Waukesha County west of Milwaukee, made its name in the 1800s as a mineral-spring resort town whose 'healing waters' drew health seekers from across the country. Its most famous son is Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, honored citywide with ten-foot guitar sculptures and murals. Its 19th-century spring water later ran out, and a decades-long fight over drinking water ended with a pipeline to Lake Michigan finished in 2024.

AppWT works with Waukesha, WI businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Waukesha

Also known as. Spring City. Saratoga of the West. GuitarTown.

History. European settlement began in 1834 when Morris D. Cutler and other New Englanders settled the banks of the Fox River; the community incorporated as Prairie Village in 1846, was renamed Waukesha in 1847, and became a city in 1896. The name derives from an Ojibwe or Potawatomi word, often translated as 'fox.' Waukesha's spa era took off after Colonel Richard Dunbar promoted the medicinal Bethesda Spring in 1868, and the city became a nationally known resort until around 1918. In 1892-93 a controversial attempt to pipe Waukesha spring water to the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition collapsed amid cost overruns and local resistance. On September 5, 1906, Carroll College's Bradbury Robinson threw what is credited as the first legal forward pass in football history. After radium was found in its groundwater, Waukesha won approval under the Great Lakes Compact in 2016 to draw Lake Michigan water, with the pipeline system completed in 2024. On November 21, 2021, an SUV was driven through the city's Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring dozens.

Local economy. GE Healthcare is a top employer, with roughly 2,477 workers as of 2017. Waukesha Memorial Hospital (ProHealth Care) employs around 2,149 people. Generac Power Systems, the generator manufacturer, is headquartered in the Waukesha area. Cooper Power Systems and other electrical and industrial manufacturers anchor a long-standing industrial base. The Waukesha public school district is among the largest employers, with roughly 1,800 staff.

Culture and community. Les Paul, born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha in 1915, invented the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording; he is both born and buried in the city. Gibson designated Waukesha a 'GuitarTown' in 2012 and 2013, installing 15 ten-foot decorated guitar sculptures and 13 murals, several painted by the traveling Walldogs artists. Carroll University, chartered in 1846, is Wisconsin's oldest college; its drama program trained stage legend Alfred Lunt and actor Fred MacMurray. The Waukesha County Fair, one of Wisconsin's oldest county fairs, is a longstanding summer tradition.

What makes Waukesha distinct. During the Cold War, Hillcrest Park hosted a Nike Hercules nuclear missile site from 1956 to about 1970. The spring water that made Waukesha a resort town eventually dried up or became polluted, and later groundwater tested unsafe for radium, forcing the switch to Lake Michigan water. The first legal forward pass in football history was reportedly thrown in Waukesha at Carroll College in 1906. The city carries the nickname 'GuitarTown' solely because of its link to Les Paul.

Waukesha Landmarks and Local Life

• The historic Old Waukesha County Courthouse.
• The GuitarTown guitar sculptures and downtown murals honoring Les Paul.
• Carroll University - 'Wisconsin's Pioneer College.'
• Ten Chimneys - the estate of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, in nearby Genesee Depot, now a theater museum
• The former Milwaukee and Madison Railway depot - the Waukesha station