The following excerpts are taken from the nomination of Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to the National Register of Historic Designed Landscapes in 1993.

The Milwaukee Parks Commission originated in the late 19th century due to a growth in population in the city, which squeezed people out of the smaller parks already created by the city’s development of a public water system. In 1889 the Wisconsin State Legislature appropriated funds for a park system in Milwaukee. Five board members were appointed, and $100,000 was appropriated to purchase land. The purpose of the park was to “offer city dwellers a taste of the country and a respite from the effects of hard labor in the crowded city”. At the turn of the century, the public began to look to parks for more organized recreation and vigorous activity, leading to the addition of recreational facilities at the county’s parks. Lake Park was among the first to be created.

The development of Lake Park began in 1892 when land was purchased along the shore of Lake Michigan. Arrangements were made to obtain the services of the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Elliot, of Brookline, Massachusetts to plan the park.

The plans for the park drawn up by the firm “embodied the English Romantic style with which Frederick Law Olmsted had become familiar with on visits to England. Rooted in the English Romantic movement were the beginnings of the naturalistic movement.” Olmsted admired this naturalistic movement, which involved “planned sequential experiences” or “a continuing sequence of spaces ranged on a structure of serially connected sight-lines”. Olmsted was concerned with visual unity, and “he thought in terms of the organization of space, perspective, and vistas. He placed darker forms of foliage in the foreground and lighter, simpler forms farther away and generally planted densely, but was careful to maintain open views.”

Olmsted had gained fame for his design of Central Park in New York City. Olmsted conceived Central Park as “a place where the city dweller could find refreshment from the sights and sounds of urban life and enjoy scenery that would seem both limitless and natural. To this end, park barriers were thickly planted and a winding system of roads and paths forced carriages to drive more slowly. By allowing the visitor to pass back and forth between ever changing views, the park was made to seem larger than it is.” These ideas were paramount to his design of Lake Park as well.

“The overall appearance of Lake Park today is little changed from the original. The original structure of curvilinear drives is still found in the park. The sequences of open spaces and plateaus are also largely intact, although some uses have changed to more active recreation, in keeping with the modern trend.”

Many aspects of the park contribute to its overall beauty. The “system of carriage drives bordering the perimeter but screened from the surrounding area and passing or leading to points of interest within the park” is credited as an outstanding characteristic of the design of the traditional urban park. There were five carriage drives in the original Olmsted plan. Three of these drives now carry auto traffic, while two are closed to cars but still function for pedestrians. There are also five large historic bridges in the park, along with several log bridges in the ravines. “The ravines are landscaped in a naturalistic manner consisting of meandering dirt paths with boulder, log, or stone slab steps, stream course lined with boulders and stepped to create a series of small pools, and retaining walls of boulders and coursed stones. The design creates a series of ‘rooms’ as the visitor progresses through a ravine.”

A pavilion was built beginning in 1902, near the location of a formal garden. The pavilion served refreshments and was used to hold concerts. Since the large windows overlooking the lake could be raised or lowered, the pavilion could be open or closed depending on the weather. A beautiful set of double stairs was also constructed to allow visitors to walk to the shore of Lake Michigan.

The golf starter house was built in 1961, and the lawn bowling clubhouse was erected in 1962. There was also a radar tracking station located in the park. A Nike missile site was established at the lakefront in 1958, and the radar station was located in Lake Park opposite the Wolcott Monument. The remaining cement structure now stores lawn mowers and equipment.

Lake Park has been used for recreational purposes since its inception, but the park also has served as a public forum for a variety of groups in Milwaukee. During the Vietnam era, antiwar protesters frequently gathered at the park, and the first “be-in” took place there in April, 1967.

The 1st Annual Report of the Milwaukee Park Commission in 1892 described Lake Park in the following manner:

“As the temporary name indicates, this park is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. It has natural advantages, believed to be second to no piece of park land in this country, and when completed, will undoubtedly be one of the grandest parks, for its size, in the land. In selecting this noble promontory, the Commissioners were actuated to give back to the people of Milwaukee the only chance left them to reach the lake without being compelled to cross railway tracks. They have always considered the lake the most beautiful feature of Milwaukee’s surroundings, and the fact the lake shore from St. Francis on the south to the water works on the north, had fallen into the hands of private parties or of corporations, inspired them to secure this magnificent lake frontage at all hazard. The park, including the Water Works park, has a lake frontage of about 7,000 feet or of nearly one and one-half miles, and overlooks the beautiful bay of Milwaukee clear to South Point, the bluff having an elevation of about 100 feet extending from the Water Works to Burleigh street. The crest of this bluff is level, and extends back to the western boundary, making a fine table-land. The park is cut by several ravines which extend to the lake and which are capable of being bridged, and with grade walks will afford easy access to the beach. The northern portion of the park is well wooded and through the grove extends one of these ravines. A small supply of water from the city mains would keep a brook bubbling all through the hot summer months. Trees, principally oak, cover 40 acres of a fine plateau, which, overlooking the lake at an elevation of over 100 feet, makes a delightfully cool resort, even on the hottest days of mid-summer. The total area of this park is 123.60 acres, but its great shore frontage makes it seem much larger.”