The View from Emmber Lane

The stories almost sound impossible now. Larry Stern remembers the day cattle escaped from the stockyards and ran down the road through the Menomonee River Valley. Back then, no one would have mistaken the Valley for a destination. It was a landscape of rail yards, factories, warehouses, and industry — a place defined by hard work more than headlines. For most people, it was somewhere to pass through. For Larry’s father, it was somewhere to build a future.

When Standard Electric needed room to grow decades ago, many businesses were leaving Milwaukee. Larry’s father looked in the opposite direction. He saw something others overlooked: open land, a central location that kept the company close to the customers it served, and a neighborhood with room not only to expand a business, but to reinvent itself.

“I really think it was my dad’s foresight,” Larry says. That decision would shape far more than the company’s address. Today, Standard Electric is a fourth-generation family business with more than a century of history — but its roots in the Menomonee River Valley tell a story that’s about more than longevity. It’s about choosing to stay.

For Larry, leadership isn’t about being the third generation. It’s about making sure there will be a fourth. Today, his son Matt is helping carry that legacy forward, continuing a story that has unfolded over more than a century. In many ways, the company’s journey mirrors the Valley itself.

When Standard Electric arrived, much of the Valley was made up of brownfields and underused industrial land. The city was assembling property and investing in cleanup. Business leaders believed the neighborhood could become something more, even if that future wasn’t obvious to everyone else.

They stayed.

They invested.

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They worked together. The transformation that followed wasn’t the result of one project or one organization. It happened because businesses, community leaders, nonprofits, and public partners shared a long view of what the Valley could become.

Today, that vision surrounds the Valley. Manufacturers stand alongside parks and trails. Kayakers paddle through waterways once defined by industry. Families gather where freight once dominated the landscape. New businesses continue to invest, while companies like

Standard Electric remind us that progress doesn’t always mean starting over. Sometimes it means building on a foundation that has been quietly strengthened for generations. Those are the stories that often go untold.

As we walked through Standard Electric, Larry pointed out pieces of the company’s history that most people would walk right past. The original sales counter from one of the company’s earlier buildings still stands inside what is now a new warehouse they again are about to outgrow. Decades of promotional items line the shelves, quietly marking another chapter in a business that has never stopped evolving.

The tour ended outside his office. Larry smiled as he explained why he insisted on the corner office. It wasn’t because of the office. It was because of the view. His son Matt’s office now sits just down the hall, Looking across the Menomonee River Valley, it’s easy to understand why he wanted that view. His son Matt’s office now sits just down the hall, separated only by a conference room. The next generation is already at the window. Looking across the Valley today, you see a neighborhood in constant motion: expanding local businesses, emerging parks, trails connecting neighborhoods, and a river restored.

How remarkable it must be to spend a lifetime watching a place become what it was always capable of becoming.