The Florida and Third Industrial Historic District is situated south of Milwaukee's traditional downtown, on the south side of the Menomonee River, at the north end of Walker¿s Point. It is composed of 12 buildings laid out in an ell-shaped district of multistory industrial lofts situated along the rail corridor or adjacent to the abandoned rail yards of the Soo Line. Historically, the buildings housed a variety of industries, including seed companies, a box manufacturer, and a printing company. Most of the buildings continued to serve industrial uses into the 1960s. Since 2000, the area has attracted new investment with numerous projects for the adaptive reuse of the buildings.

The district reflects the evolution in industrial loft design that took place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This began with the narrow, brick and timber frame, textile mill lofts of the 1890s, which were commercial in appearance. It continued with the larger, boxy, brick and timber frame, textile mill lofts of the first decade of the twentieth century. The middle textile mill loft employed architectural embellishment and often displayed a three-part composition, echoing the base-shaft-capital of a column, a characteristic of the Chicago Commercial style. The transformation in industrial loft form ended with the concrete and brick, textile mill and daylight lofts of the 1910s and 1920s, which were devoid of ornamentation. The Florida and Third Industrial Historic District showcases a variety of industrial loft forms, with designs by a number of local and regional architects, engineers and contractors.

Many of the buildings in the district are not open to the public. Please respect the rights and privacy of the occupants.