MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge is an iconic staple in the Cream City, but little is known about its namesake. 

Daniel Hoan was Milwaukee’s 32nd mayor from 1916 to 1940. His grandson reflects on the memories he has of him.

“Daniel Hoan insisted that I be named Daniel, so that’s how that happened and I lived with him for the first 15 years of my life,” said Daniel Steininger. “He lived upstairs from us.”

Steininger just finished a three and a half year project of fundraising to light the Hoan Bridge for the first time in history. The culmination happened last week. It took $3.5 million in private donations from community leaders and Milwaukee citizens to make the project come to fruition.

“I know granddad would be very proud because it represents what he believed in,” said Daniel.  “A community working together for a common purpose.”

Dan recalls his grandfather’s time as mayor and the recognition he gained from some of the nation’s most famous leaders, including FDR.

“This is a letter Roosevelt wrote Dan Hoan after reading his book on city government,” Daniel says, as he shows the letter, signed by FDR himself. "Roosevelt gave Dan so much of the credit for so many of the programs implemented in the New Deal.”

Han made the cover of Time Magazine in April of 1936, as one of the nation’s most influential mayors.  

Steininger shows pictures of his grandfather with Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, and one of him standing alone in front of a wood shed.

“He would split wood because that’s the only way we could heat the house back then,” said Dan. “There’s his corncob pipe that he smoked too.”

Steininger admits he wishes he had known how influential his grandfather was. At 10 years old, he says it’s tough to comprehend that.

“He said ‘Danny, this lakefront should stay open for the people’ and I’m like I’m 10 years old what do I know?” Steininger said.  “Fast forward to now when I’m appointed the head of the Harbor Commission which oversees that whole lakefront.”

Steininger recalls his grandfather creating Lincoln Memorial Drive, which connects to Milwaukee’s lakefront.    

“He made Milwaukee a city that was friendly to the average person,” said Steininger. “He’d knock on the doors of the so-called capitalists and say ‘hey, can you donate your land so people can get to the lakefront’ and they did.”

People can buy light bulbs in the name of loved ones as well. To do so and to learn more about the project, click here.