Locksmith in Whitefish Bay, WI

Locksmith in Whitefish Bay, on the bluffs above the lake

A locksmith in Whitefish Bay works in a village of family homes on tree-lined streets, set on the bluffs above Lake Michigan, with one main shopping street. Most calls here are about houses: a rekey after moving in, an old lock that sticks, a keypad lock for the kids, or a lockout on the front steps. We are a mobile locksmith, so the work happens at your door. A rekey or a repair takes 15 to 60 minutes, and a lockout usually takes a few minutes once we arrive. Whitefish Bay is about 5 miles north of downtown Milwaukee, in Milwaukee County.

A village founded for a school

In the early 1890s, families in this part of the old Town of Milwaukee had no school nearby, and the town turned down their request for one. In 1892 the residents answered by incorporating as the Village of Whitefish Bay, the first village in Milwaukee County, and by forming their own school district. Classes first met in a grocery store on Silver Spring Drive until a schoolhouse opened in 1893, on the site now called Schoolhouse Park. In 2020 the village had 14,954 residents on about 2.1 square miles, and nearly 30 percent of them were under 18.

The Pabst resort and the lakefront lots

In 1889 Frederick Pabst, the brewer, bought land on the bluff and opened the Pabst Whitefish Bay Resort, with a hotel, a restaurant, a beer garden, a bandshell, and later a Ferris wheel and a merry-go-round. Steamboats carried visitors from Milwaukee to a dock below the bluff. The resort closed around 1914, and its land was divided into lakefront lots, one of which holds the Herman Uihlein Mansion, now on the National Register of Historic Places. The first village park, at Silver Spring Drive and the lake, opened in 1892, and its lookout still offers one of the best views of the bay.

Rekeying and lock repair for older homes

Many houses in Whitefish Bay date from the early 1900s, when developers laid out new subdivisions across the village, and they have been bought and sold many times since. Each sale leaves keys in unknown hands: former owners, their children, contractors, and dog walkers. A rekey changes the inside of each lock so all of those keys stop working, and the hardware stays on the door. We key the front door, the back door, and the garage to one new key, from $59 for the first lock and $20 for each additional lock (rekeying).

Older hardware also wears out. Mortise locks on original front doors, deadbolts that bind in winter, and knobs that spin without catching can usually be repaired rather than thrown away; repair starts at $79 (lock repair). When a lock is past repair, a replacement starts at $99 and a new deadbolt at $119.

Keypad locks for busy families

With so many children in the village, a lot of front doors open for kids coming home from school, babysitters, grandparents, and dog walkers. Handing out keys to all of them means losing track of who can still get in. A keypad or smart lock gives each person a code that you can delete later, and the door can lock itself after a set time. Installation starts at $99 (smart locks), and we leave a key backup in case the batteries run down.

Shops on Silver Spring Drive

Silver Spring Drive is the village's shopping street, with small businesses, restaurants, and a movie theater. We open a locked shop from $89 (business lockout), rekey after a staff change from $79 for the first lock, repair door closers from $99, and replace worn storefront locks from $129. A house or car lockout anywhere in the village starts at $69 (house lockout).

Driving to Whitefish Bay

Whitefish Bay borders Shorewood on the south and Glendale on the west, and Fox Point is to the north. Downtown Milwaukee is about 5 miles south along Lake Drive, and Brown Deer is to the northwest. We cover all of them at the same prices.