Speaking of trains...

I mentioned in my last post how so many train tracks in Milwaukee have been abandoned and/or removed.

Below is one such site.

This is the back side of Downtown Auto Body (which is not downtown, really, but behind Holton and Townsend). There used to be a train track along the area at the bottom of the photo, and until the mid-1990's, the Circus Train from Baraboo, WI would stop right there and unload all the circus paraphernalia to head down to the parade site. This was quite a spectacle. This mural, painted last year, commemorates that time. It's really much nicer looking than in my poor photo. You will just have to go see it for yourself.

These tracks were removed a couple of years ago after becoming an attractive place to dump mattresses and construction debris, and a weird curvy trail that appears to be some kind of meandering bike path that goes nowhere was laid down. Stray cats use it, too.

I miss Goldmann's.

My brother and I had our annual tradition: Christmas shopping and lunch at Goldmann's Department Store on Mitchell. We would buy "cherries on a wire" for mom, undershirts for me, nonironically retro-esque craft supplies, and other things that only they seemed to sell. The lunch counter was awesome. How can a place-a Milwaukee icon- close after being open for the previous 111 years? Was it because of people like me, who only shopped there once a year? Why didn't I appreciate them more? Where am I going to buy undershirts?

Schroeder Books and Music

Schroeder Books & Music, 7629 W. Greenfield Avenue, Westallica: shelves piled high with books and magazines in genres that you can't find anywhere else. (Adjacent to the "Americana" section is "Linconana.") It's always worth a look-see here. I've imagined that every book ever published is in there...somewhere.

I found a Workbasket Magazine from the 1950's, in case I ever want to tat a doily. These are collectible little mags with historical value- not just needlework (presumably kept in a tidy basket by the hearth) but also for the ads. ("Steady pay every day as a Practical Nurse! Enjoy security, no recession for Nurses. Earn to $65 per week, good times or bad. Florence Nightingale School of Nursing.") As I checked out, the lady said,
"We have hundreds of Workbaskets."
Hundreds?
The mind reels!

I mentioned that I'm a longtime customer (sporadically) and used to go to the old store on 7th and Wisconsin, when it was across the street from the old Duncan Donuts, back in the 80's and early '90's. This was before the "revitalization" of downtown Milwaukee. She told me about the fire that destroyed the store- they had two locations at that time- and thousands of books stored beneath the street, all destroyed. But they have plenty again, so make sure you do some Christmas shopping for the lover of historic needework patterns or Linconana aficionado in your life.

Milwaukee's proud Socialist history continues

I just had to take a picture of the two signs on the back of this bus.

Public schools, public transit.

Gallery Night 7/24

Gallery Night last night was amazing. Brain had a drum gig last night at one of the venues, leaving me free once again to explore art that I liked at my own pace. I started off at MIAD where there was a senior exhibition. I was particularly taken by this piece by Brittany Renee Miller- a series of mostly-silkscreened panels. As you can see, not only is each separate panel different on one side from the other, but the whole is much, much greater than the sum of each part.


Miller's piece starts with some of the chemical compounds that make up the human body, and ends with poetry and some other things. Obviously a photo cannot do an art object like this justice.






On to the Tory Folliard Gallery, below. The art was great; the people-watching, even better.




Lastly, on to the Pritzlaff Building, where more MIAD students were presenting art that took into account the cavernous space and the long history of the building.

The art above is concentric circles several feet in diameter, made of paper figurines, representing the ripples we all create through history. It is quite breathtaking. It looks like a galaxy seen from far, far away, except that it is made up of people instead of stars.

School for Nvrses

This is the door of the original Columbia Hospital School for Nurses, which I attended in the 1990's; at that time, this building was used for staff offices. It's rather ornate inside as well.

Back in the day, every hospital had its own training program for nurses. Nursing education has changed a lot since then- what used to be mostly practical training programs (difficult ones, at that) morphed into baccalaureate, master's degree level, and now even doctoral level (not PhD, but actual doctorate degrees in nursing). Health care has changed also, even in the relatively short time that I've been working in the field- Obama's proposed national computerized charting system has my mind spinning, personally. But that is another topic for other blogs. I meant to write about hospital buildings themselves, and one special one in particular.

Detail of doorway. I especially adore this Latinate lettering.

I love ornate old buildings.

I love looking at them.

I love walking into them, into ancient doorways through which many have passed. I love marble or terrazzo stairways worn with countless footfalls, wooden banisters that have the patina of having been polished by years' worth of hands. I love old windows with uneven glass, even though they leak heat in our harsh Wisconsin winters. I love old buildings.

Same building- ivy-covered in the springtime. The first night I was there, I figured out how to sneak onto the roof, which became a favorite and special place.

I don't know what is going to happen to this place once the adjacent hospital is closed. My hope is that it will be made more energy-efficient and repurposed into at least somewhat-affordable condos or apartments. The rooms inside were just so beautiful; but even fifteen years ago, the whole building was in a sad state of disrepair.

Time will tell.

Evergreen/ Glen Oaks Cemetery

Warning: This is a sad post.

Vandalism or neglect? Does it matter?

I took these photos in the spring of 2001, in what was then known as Evergreen Cemetery, right across the street from Lincoln Park. It seems to be called Glen Oaks now.

It's on the cusp of Milwaukee and Glendale.

Note how the tree has overgrown the headstone, indicating years of neglect; yet somehow beautiful, like an embrace.

I used to walk the dog there. It's kind of pretty, and full of history and green-ness and quiet, which I like. It was not well-maintained at that time, as you can see from the photos above. I can't find an online reference to the issues (which I am reassured have been resolved. (The task of locating gravesites in the "most troubled" area of the cemetery was resolved in 2000, after a 1998 lawsuit by the state- winning $600,000; headstones were replaced on many of the graves, according to Journal-Sentinel archived articles, but "cold weather may delay that work until spring.")

There also were and still are drainage issues. It seems the land must have been swamp originally, or a tributary of the Milwaukee River runs through it- there is some complex drainage system that oft malfunctions, leaving standing water- after heavy rain events, you will see ducks swimming over the graves. It is mysterious.

It apparently was originally a burial place for immigrants- something that walking the parade in my Statue of Liberty costume and tutoring new learners of English makes me think a lot about. One area contains markers in several different languages- European, Cyrillic, and Asian lettering abound. I don't know if you would consider it a "potter's field" of sorts. Now the families I see there are all African-American. It looks a lot nicer now.

Like I said, it had its problems- similar to this (though not as horrendous) currently going on in Chicago. (DO NOT CLICK THE LINK if you are a sensitive soul!! Although, it was on yesterday's Chicago Tribune front page...)

Just some architecture that I love

I will continue to briefly discuss the Columbia-St. Mary's architecture. (Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here).

I love this ancient St. Mary's Hospital building. A favorite place to visit, built in 1858. Many injured sailors were served here by nuns when life was dangerous in a different way than it is now.

This is the one built in the 1970's. I once read how the War Memorial (also by the lake, the original one- not the Calatrava) "makes concrete seem to float." That seems an apt description. This flower-shaped building is innovative- maximizing natural light, and making hospital units efficient and safe. Alas, progress must occur. Does it seem dated? Is it ugly? I like it. The renovated units were sunny and provided for safe patient care: the semicircle formation meant no long hallways, no faraway hidden places for unknowns to happen. It was all right there.

This is the new hospital. *Sigh*. Maybe it will be finished someday.

Here is the juxtaposition of all three.

And the really cool water tower next door. Just a lovely thing. Built in 1873.

I found this really cool website about some of Milwaukee's historic structures.

Enjoy!

Longest war in US History

On our recent trip, we visited Plymouth, WI- Brain's family homestead, so to speak. Besides enjoying the Mullet River that meanders through town and the cute main drag, we visited a park with an individual memorial to each US war- a boulder with the war's name, dates, and the flag of that time period. With the exception of the Cold War, the "Middle East Conflicts" represent the longest-running war in our nation's history- and still with no end date. Now, I've watched Braveheart and Lord of the Rings, and any number of similar movies; I don't enjoy battle scenes, but I understand why they are there: the protagonists are bravely protecting their precious ways of life and homelands at all costs. I boast Irish, German, and Viking blood. I understand that sometimes war is an unfortunate necessity in the sinful and illogical world in which we live: it is sometimes necessary in order to protect our freedoms and those of others with whom we share this planet. I have pride in our American military who have sacrificed to maintain those freedoms.

However, for whatever reason, I had brought along Kurt Vonnegut's excellent Slaughterhouse Five as light reading on this particular trip: a book that I had tried to read in the past and just not engaged with, but giving it another chance was the right choice. It is a vivid account of the horrors and the ludicrosity of war. Read it if you get the chance.

Support our troops: ideally by welcoming them all home soon.

Port Washington Road infill

There is some construction going on on Port Washington Road south of Capitol and north of Keefe (in the part of 53212 that I always think is 53206). If you've been reading my blog, you know I am not fond of suburban sprawl. Also, this is an area I find myself in with some frequency, so I am doubly happy to see some infill in this particular neighborhood. Port Washington Road was obviously a main road out of town back in the day and many ornate buildings remain, repurposed, but most still in use.

Dissected and isolated both by the I-43 to the west that carved a valley through in the 50's, and the Capitol Drive valley to the north, it's been blighted for years, sad, with the kind of statistics that make suburbanites squirm.

So I called Catalyst Construction, the company behind the larger new building, to ask what is going on. It's going to be Hope Middle School, a new K-8 building for the network of Hope Christian Schools. They just tore down what appeared to be a vacant grocery-store-turned-church, presumably for some play space.

Also, someone is building a new house just south of Capitol. At least, a foundation was dug and constructed for one, but the idea seems to be on hiatus. A few doors down another house is in a sad state of gradual destruction. It is baffling.

Just south of Keefe, in the past maybe five or seven years, Milwaukee Women's Correctional Center and Hope High School (Heartlove Place) were also built. Here's a pic (from the MJ-S in a 2006 article) of how happy people are to be released from the former. The school kids appear happy to be released daily, also. Post Food and Liquor has now affixed new green awnings to the building, giving it a jaunty flair. Below is the same building from the above photo three years later- a shot I got this month.

Moving south, King Drive also has several liquor other stores, including one that a former neighbor claimed sells The Coldest Beer in the WORLD!! (though I know of no research that upholds this claim) and also Green Ring II, which used to be called King on Ring, although it's actually on the corner of King and Concordia.

I'll have part two on this neighborhood soon!

Lustron houses

Blue Lustron House at 3802 W Capitol Drive, Milwaukee.

One of my longtime fascinations is Lustron houses. I didn't know until four years ago that they have a name; I used to call them Tile Houses. I happened to grow up near a rich cluster of Lustrons.- all blue-green, except for one which was tan. I would go out on my bike and try to find more, and had a route of sorts to go and visit them. This was of course pre-internet- now all of their addresses are on the online Lustron Registry. Apparently other people appreciate them too, since they also have their own Preservation Association. Lustron at 2746 N 82nd Street

In a 2005 article from Chicago's New City newspaper, Douglas Knerr (author of Suburban Steel: The Magnificent Failure of the Lustron Corporation) said that he first became interested in the Lustron houses when his cousin married a boy who had grown up in a Lustron house in Ohio, affording Knerr the opportunity to tour the inside. Knerr "instantly noticed that his cousin's new family had no use for nails or for a hammer. They hung all their photos and artwork directly to their home's walls using magnets. And maintenance? That was minimal. Nothing chipped or faded." But Knerr saw something larger: "These homes are an important part of our history. They reflect an effort by the government to help provide affordable houseing on a mass scale, something that we are still wrestling with today."

Last year, a DVD was released about the sad collapse of the visionary Lustron company (it was a conspiracy, for you believers). I recently was told by a reliable source that my mom reads all of my blog posts, and since my birthday is coming up soon perhaps she will come up with a great gift idea for me.Lustron at 2777 N. 82nd Street; as you can see, it has aluminum siding now.

I'm going to try to photograph all of the other Milwaukee Lustrons in the near future.

Sterling Spring Water Company

A few years ago I was at an estate sale where there were many fondleable, weird items from the middle part of the last century. One thing that caught my attention was an old bottle labeled

"Bottled at the Source

1053 N. 115th Street Wauwatosa

Sterling Spring Water Company"

I had never heard of this, and wrote the label information in my notebook (what the hell am I going to do with an old bottle, cool as it may be? I have enough crap [although, if anyone is sufficiently intrigued, this site has one for sale for $10. As of this writing, it's item #S-417]). Do any of you have any further information on it?

The company does not seem to still be in existence, but here is a map of that address.

There is at least one spring still in use in Milwaukee, the Bay View Iron Well, which I used to drink from copiously. It always seemed ancient and pure and mysterious, even though everyone knows about it. If anyone knows about this Sterling Spring Water Company, though, please post a comment about it.

Here is a photo of that area now, where 115th street crosses over Underwood Creek, courtesy of Google Street View. It is interesting to note that the watershed divides just west of there, at approximately 124th street. Is there still a spring there? Is it safe to drink from?

Got little German in you? Oh yes you do.

Last year I did a river cleanup with some coworkers, one of whom brought her toddler along. We were walking together when his sippy cup fell to the ground. I picked it up for her, and said, "You better clean it off. It got some schmutz on it." The word, even as I said it, startled me. Where had that word come from? I had no idea how I even knew it, much less said it.
Fast forward to a month ago. My dad got some German books and started studying the language to prepare for an upcoming trip. So, I did what any helpful offspring would do and picked up "Getting along in German" from the thrift store (an auspicious find, as Germans are known for thrift). There it is: schmutz, dirt; schmutzig, dirty. In between the fact that English itself is derived in large part from Anglo-Saxon, which is a Germanic language; the German-flavored history of Milwaukee where I grew up (with our Teutonic place names and surnames); and, in my specific case, having been steeped in staunch Lutheranism, somehow many of the words look and sound comfortably familiar. (Schnecks, anyone? Or delicious butterkuchen? Sitten zie down and have some.) So achtung! You too may find yourself sprechen more Deutch than you realize.

Wild and wooly 1940's Milwaukee- a tidbit

Ed Montgomery, MD, former Chief of Staff of Columbia St. Mary’s, grew up in the neighborhood near what was then called Columbia Hospital. Dr. Montgomery’s childhood home was moved to make way for the hospital’s expansion. In a recent issue of the CSM newsletter celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Columbia, Dr. Montgomery had this to say about the neighborhood in his childhood:
“In 1939, our prototypical Milwaukee frame duplex (at 3337 N. Frederick) was flanked by a similar home to the South, an empty lot to the North, and across the street our neighbor - a ewe.

"The ewe lived in a 10-foot square shed under an elm tree at the south end of a 240 sq. ft. corral. We kids used to feed her grass and clover through the fence, and occasionally were bold enough to climb into the pen to pet and chase her.” (Photo shows 1951 addition to the hospital)
The area around the hospital was a mix of homes and farmland. At the top left area, you can see that across Maryland Avenue from the hospital are not yet UWM's multi-story Sandburg Halls that sway in the wind today, but what appears to be a larger Downer Woods. This all was not such a long time ago, yet so much has changed since then.

Regarding confluences

The word confluence, from the Latin words for "flow together," is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "the flowing together of two or more streams." (It's a big dictionary. I won it a couple of years ago in a spelling bee, and feel obligated to use it sometimes.)
Here's a pic I took of DH in 2007 in Wyalusing State Park, overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. It kind of looks like I Photoshopped him in, which I wish I had so I could take him out for illustrative purposes, but alas. As you can see, there is a wetland there, a common occurance at confluences. It is a grand vista. You can also see the new Wal-Mart from the campground, lit up like the sun all freaking night, which is especially sad since it mars the stargazing (pun!); seriously, though, there is an observatory there, and an active astronomy club . (But that is a different topic entirely.) Instead, I wanted to point out some history of the confluence of the Milwaukee River and Lincoln Creek, in what is at this point in time Lincoln Park. There used to be an S-curve in the River and a similar marshy situation, though on a smaller scale. Back in the 1930's, the CCC undertook the project of straightening the river's curvacious natural path, scooping and shaping the marsh into islands. I tried to get a good shot to illustrate the way the soil has been scooped out. This is the southwest part of the area, looking northwest, near Green Bay Road in Lincoln Park.
The map at right, from
MIT libraries, shows Milwaukee in 1906. The circled area indicates what is now Lincoln Park. You can see the lack of development in that area; the map indicates it is marshy.


To reiterate what I said at the public hearing on the 24th of March, if a person wants to go live on a natural river, untouched by human hands, one could do so- perhaps in a remote part of Alaska or Canada, in a tent. One could peacefully fish there, view otters, and eat berries, unfettered by technology or society. I will not try to talk you out of doing so.

Open letter from Glendale Alderman Richard W. Wiese

This is part of a letter that Glendale's 4th District Alderman Richard Wiese wrote to County Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb. Alderman Wiese is graciously allowing me to quote from it.
"I am a life long resident of Milwaukee’s North Shore. In my early years, I fondly remember renting a row boat and rowing around the Lincoln Park lagoon and Milwaukee River with my Grandfather and Father, plus fishing in the river along numerous points in Lincoln Park, catching many large fish.
You will also note a photo that I have included with this letter that was taken by an ancestor of mine(F. Bischoff) in 1893. He took photos throughout Milwaukee County, particularly in the emerging parks. One of the photos he took clearly shows Estabrook Park and the Milwaukee River, and is identified as Estabrook Park in his own hand note at the top of the page, which based on the date precedes the establishment of the Milwaukee County Park system, and is therefore potentially a City of Milwaukee park, with the Board of Park Commissioners established in 1889. This photo shows 5 men in a row boat and several fishermen clearly in the background. Further in the background is the railroad trestle, the supports of which still stand, and was the line going into what is now the Glendale Technology Park.
A close inspection of the photo shows the top edge of the natural dam beneath the trestle, which created the wide still water lake (now referred to as the impoundment) that the people in the photo are clearly enjoying. As this photo was taken before any governmental intervention in the river, this was clearly the natural flow of the river. Oddly enough, it seems that fish were making it into this section of the river without any assistance from special interest groups. Taking a walk along the river today, accessed by the stairs that are to the south of Picnic Area 5, you can still see the original banks of the river along the western side of the river, which are a substantial distance from the current river pathway.


The natural condition of the river in 1893 resulted in an area of natural beauty and wide quiet waters. From other photos in this collection, I believe that the boat in the photo is a rental item, which indicates that this section of the river was an active recreational area. Many of the people speaking at last night's meeting [March 24th] continued to emphasize the need to “return the river to its natural condition”. I believe that this photo shows that the levels of the river today when the dam is closed closely match those of the original river. It does not appear that the river was the narrow fast moving channel that many of the presenters alluded to...
The waters above the Estabrook Dam have provided beauty and recreational opportunities for generations of Milwaukee County residents. If the dam were to be removed, it would be a tragic loss to the citizens of Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee, and the citizens of Glendale."


Respectfully,
Richard W. Wiese
4th District Alderman
City of Glendale

Some history of the impoundment

John Gurda wrote this article in December of 2008, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
"There were ultimately six camps within the county's borders: in Whitnall, Estabrook, Sheridan and Kletzsch parks, with two more along what is now Honey Creek Parkway. Each accommodated roughly 200 young men who lived under the authority of regular Army officers and worked under the direction of trained foremen on highly specific tasks. The improvements they made to our parks and parkways have proven remarkably durable...They reshaped the bed of the Milwaukee River in Lincoln Park and constructed the present flood-control dam in Estabrook Park. They erected the graceful suspension bridge that crosses the Menomonee River near Hoyt Park, and they built miles of walkways and retaining walls with dolomite from a quarry in Currie Park. The waterfall on the Milwaukee River in Kletzsch Park - a popular fishing spot during the fall salmon run - is actually a concrete dam faced with local dolomite. CCC crews worked day and night to finish it before the spring floods came."

Missed opportunity

Kate Horgan took this picture of the Blatz Pavilion in Lincoln Park, when the water was high in the summer, impounded by the Estabrook Dam. Canoes used to be available for rental here. That's a thing of the past. It could be revived if the dam stays where it is. Of course now the giant water park is being built right behind it- how ironic: we have our city's largest river running right past the park- accused by many of having existed in an "unnatural" state for the past 75 or so years- but a water park is just fine.

Save the Estabrook Dam!

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I am the River Otter. I live by the Milwaukee River. I love the river, I love nature; I try to conserve gas by riding my bike; I reduce and reuse. I also love to kayak (if by myself) and canoe (with my dear husband) on the Milwaukee River and Lincoln Creek. That is by far the most influential reason we moved here (and it's close to where we both work).
Let me explain: the Estabrook Dam was built as a WPA project in the 1930's, as part of the economic stimulus package during the Great Depression. Bedrock had been removed from the riverbed and the water level was low as a result. The dam, an innovative design that won an award and influenced later dams, raised the water level to essentially its original level. As part of this project, wetlands were drained and islands were formed in what is now county park land in Lincoln Park. It is beautiful...peaceful...an urban oasis.
Now, I am not a big proponent of draining wetlands, and if such a project were proposed now, I would be opposed.
However, we live in a built environment, an urban environment that has been altered. John Gurda's fantastic documentary series _The Making of Milwaukee_ illustrates how humans have altered the land, from the time people noted that the confluence of rivers and the natural port on Lake Michigan were a great place to settle, all the way to now, when we have a population of nearly two million people in the metro area. Removing the Estabrook Dam won't return the area to a pristine natural setting such as existed three hundred years ago; leaving it in place allows the park to exist as it does now, an urban paddler's paradise.
See also my posts about the recreational benefits of the impoundment, the original state of the confluence, and some more of its history.