Locksmith in Port Washington, WI

Locksmith in Port Washington, the harbor city

A locksmith in Port Washington works in a Lake Michigan harbor town built on hills around a marina, with a historic downtown, older homes on the bluffs, and new neighborhoods on its edges. We come to the house, the harbor lot, or the shop as a mobile locksmith. A rekey or a car key takes 15 to 60 minutes, and a lockout usually takes a few minutes once we arrive. Port Washington is about 24 miles north of downtown Milwaukee, in Ozaukee County.

From lakeside settlement to county seat

Settlement here began in 1835, at the mouth of Sauk Creek, where a natural harbor made the place a port on Lake Michigan. The city was named for its port and for George Washington. Early on it shipped cordwood, flour, bricks, fish, and hides. Port Washington became a village in 1848, and when Ozaukee County was carved out of Washington County in 1853, it became the new county's seat. It incorporated as a city in 1882, and in the 1880s and 1890s many French and Belgian immigrants arrived. In 2020 the city had 12,353 residents, and it is growing faster than any other community in the county.

The lighthouse, the harbor, and St. Mary's

A lighthouse was built on the city's north bluff in 1849 and rebuilt in 1860; the 1860 light station still stands and now houses a museum. The harbor was built out in the 1870s, and today the marina is guarded by a long breakwater with its own lighthouse at the end. On the hill above downtown stands St. Mary's Church, built in 1882 of stone from a local quarry. The Wisconsin Chair Company, founded here, at its height accounted for roughly half of the jobs in Port Washington, and it was the company behind the Paramount record label.

Fish Day and lockouts at the lakefront

Since 1964, Port Washington has held Fish Day on the lakefront, for decades billed as the world's largest one-day outdoor fish fry and now a multi-day festival called Fish Days. Festival weekends, summer evenings at the marina, and anglers fishing from the breakwater all fill the lots near the water. Keys locked in a car or lost on the pier are something we handle on the spot. Tell us the lot or the street, and we come to the car. A car lockout starts at $69 (car lockout). When the key is gone, we cut and program a new one at the car from $119, and a push-to-start smart key starts at $159.

Moving into one of the new neighborhoods

New streets keep appearing on the edges of Port Washington. If you just got the keys to a newly built home or condo, assume they are not the only copies: during construction, keys sit in lockboxes and get passed from crew to crew for months. The fix takes one visit. We change the pins inside each cylinder so only your new key works, and you keep the hardware that came with the house. Pricing is simple: $59 for the first lock and $20 for each extra lock on the same visit (rekeying). If you would rather not carry keys at all, a code lock for the main entry starts at $99, and codes can be added or removed whenever you like.

Older homes and downtown shops

Many older houses on the hills around downtown still have their original doors, and their locks wear out with time. We repair a sticking lock from $79 (lock repair), replace a worn one from $99, and add a deadbolt from $119. A house lockout starts at $69 (house lockout). Downtown shops and restaurants along Franklin Street work in old commercial buildings; we rekey a business after a staff change from $79 for the first lock, repair door closers from $99, replace storefront locks from $129, and open a locked business from $89.

Driving to Port Washington

Port Washington is reached by I-43 and Highway 32 from the south. Grafton is to the southwest, Cedarburg is beyond it, and Mequon is farther south along the lake. We also cover Saukville, just to the west, at the same prices.