Grafton is a village in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. Located just about 20 miles (32 km) north of Milwaukee and in near proximity to Interstate 43, it is a suburban community in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The village incorporated in 1896, and at the times of the 2010 census the population was 11,459.

Like many of Ozaukee County’s cities and villages, the Village of Grafton has rural roots and began as a mill town. The German and Irish immigrants who decided in Grafton in the 1840s utilized the Milwaukee River as a source of hydropower for gristmills and woolen mills. Manufacturing grew and prospered in the village in the 20th century, including the Paramount Records studio and plant, which was in Grafton from 1929 to 1935. Paramount was one of the first and largest producers of blues and jazz chronicles marketed to African-American consumers. Paramount’s role in Grafton’s history and Blues music records earned the village a spot on the historic Mississippi Blues Trail.

Grafton changed significantly during the become old of post-World War II suburbanization. Even even though the last woolen mill closed in 1980, the village experienced hasty population mass and the enhance of new billboard properties and housing subdivisions. The construction of Interstate 43 in the mid-1960s eased travel to next to communities. In the 21st century, Grafton is home to many big-box stores, including Costco, The Home Depot, Kohl’s, Meijer, and Target, as without difficulty as an Aurora hospital.

The first Europeans to visit the area were the Jesuit missionaries Claude-Jean Allouez and Claude Bablon, who visited a Native American village on the Milwaukee River close the innovative site of Grafton something like 1670.