Locksmith in Grafton, WI

Locksmith in Grafton, on the Milwaukee River

A locksmith in Grafton works in a river village with a walkable downtown, family neighborhoods, and shopping near Interstate 43. The Milwaukee River runs south through the middle of the village, and Highway 60 crosses it downtown. We come to the house, the lot, or the shop as a mobile locksmith. A lockout usually takes a few minutes once we arrive, and a rekey, a keypad lock, or a car key takes 15 to 60 minutes. Grafton is about 19 miles north of downtown Milwaukee, in Ozaukee County.

A mill village on the river

When French Jesuit missionaries traveled through in 1670, they found a Native American village on the river near today's Grafton. Settlers arrived in 1839, the Town of Grafton was created in 1846, and the village incorporated from part of the town on March 30, 1896. Early industry ran on the river: three dams powered a flour mill and a worsted mill, the Wisconsin Chair Company factory, and the Milwaukee Falls Lime Company. In 2020 Grafton had 12,094 residents on about 5 square miles.

Paramount Records and the blues

The most famous factory on the river belonged to the Wisconsin Chair Company. It began by making phonograph cabinets, and in 1917 it started its own record label, Paramount Records. Paramount became one of the first and largest producers of blues and jazz records marketed to African American buyers, and an estimated quarter of all such records released between 1922 and 1932 carried its label. In 1929 the company opened a recording studio in Grafton, and artists such as Son House and Skip James recorded here. The studio stopped recording in 1932, the label closed in 1935, and the building was torn down in 1938. Today Grafton has a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, one of few outside the South, and Paramount Plaza downtown has a Walk of Fame designed to look like piano keys.

Lime Kiln Park and the riverside

The Milwaukee Falls Lime Company quarried limestone here and burned it in kilns to make lime, and lime production mattered to the village economy until the 1920s. Three of the five original kilns still stand in Lime Kiln Park, on the west bank of the river, along with trails and picnic areas, and the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, a bike path on the old interurban rail line, passes through the village. A key locked in the car at the park lot, or dropped on a riverside trail, is easy to fix: tell us which lot you are in, 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 (lost car keys).

Homes, rekeys, and keypad locks

Most of Grafton is residential, from older houses near downtown to newer subdivisions on the edges of the village. When you move in, a rekey makes every old key useless without new hardware, from $59 for the first lock and $20 for each additional lock (rekeying). A keypad or smart lock gives each family member, sitter, or neighbor a code you can delete later; installation starts at $99 (smart locks). A house lockout starts at $69 (house lockout).

Older houses near the river often have worn locks. A key that sticks, a deadbolt that only turns when you push the door, or a knob that spins without catching can usually be fixed; lock repair starts at $79 (lock repair), and a broken key stuck in a lock is removed from $99.

Shops downtown and near I-43

Downtown Grafton has shops and restaurants in older buildings around Paramount Plaza, and more businesses line the roads toward I-43. We open a locked business 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.

Driving to Grafton

Grafton borders the city of Cedarburg on the west. Port Washington is to the north along I-43, and Mequon is to the south. We also cover Saukville and the Town of Grafton at the same prices.