In a 1968 city report on the dreary state of the Downtown portion of Milwaukee, Mayor Henry Maier referred to the water as “an almost dead artery of commerce.” The purpose of the report was to find a way to salvage the river, to remake it into a purposeful part of a Downtown that had fallen into disrepair in the post-war era.
Once a primary industrial driver for the city, the river, by the 1960s, was not unlike Maier’s grim assessment. While the Menomonee Valley was still a hub of shipping and lake freighters continued to frequent the Port of Milwaukee docks on Jones Island, industry along the river had been in decline since the 1920s, when increased automobile traffic discouraged the numerous bridge openings and delays that came with upriver shipping.
But even some 40 years later, the ugly remnants of this industrial era continued to define most of the Downtown part of the river. Between the North Avenue dam and the office buildings and high-rises of Wisconsin Avenue, the river was pocked with decaying buildings and empty lots. Industrial sites, both those abandoned and those still in use, seeped pollution into the waterway, producing a pungent odor that was instantly recognizable. It seemed that the massive die-offs of alewives, which made for an even worse stink, was the only thing that could cover it. In addition to the alewives, it was also reported that the riverbanks had become infested with rats, living well off the trash that was regularly strewn about by careless citizens.
Aside from the opening of the Marine Plaza Building (today the Chase Tower) in 1961, improvements to the riverfront mostly consisted of surface parking lots, considered then to be a useful upgrade to land that had little other value. The 1968 report frowned upon surface lots as being unsightly, but pointed to a proposal for a more modern-looking parking structure (which was eventually built on the west side of the river between Michigan and Clybourn) as a much-welcomed upgrade to the overall aesthetic of the waterway.
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As for the future of the river, the city had a number of big ideas, but no concrete plans to implement them. One proposal had the river north of Wells Street expand to fill a series of man-made lagoons that would spread all the way west to Sixth Street and as far north as the old Park East Freeway. Numerous historic buildings, including the Pabst Theater, would have been bulldozed in this plan, which would have showcased more modern Downtown buildings and added an expansive twin-level riverwalk. Another called for the river to be limited to small recreational craft and gondolas to simulate the experience of touring Venice. Yet another called for a narrowing of the river to one-third of its width and the creation of promenades both alongside and over the river. One proposal even called for the river to be filled in between North Avenue and the Menomonee River junction, and used as Downtown parkway.
The city’s report showed that Milwaukee was deeply concerned with what would become of the river, and also deeply conflicted about how to bring it into the modern era. It would be a few more decades before a cleaner river and the lure of the Riverwalk began to drive development along the waterway, but the thinking of the ’60s and from that of generations before—that the river was a natural resource worth showcasing—remained intact.
