Lake Park
Milwaukee County Parks is recognized nationally as a trail-blazing park system that extended the concept of a network of linked parks and parkways throughout a county, not just a city. This planned system also preserved countywide waterways (creating environmental benefits) and reflected the native Wisconsin landscape.
What many now call our “emerald necklace” dates back to what Frederick Law Olmsted—the man considered to be the “father of American parks”—designed in 1892 as a “Grand Necklace of Parks.” It included Lake Park, Riverside Park and Washington Park, plus the green spaces amidst Newberry Boulevard.
Charles B. Whitnall, a Socialist civic leader dubbed the “father of Milwaukee County Parks,” called his 1923 plan for parks and parkways encircling the county a “necklace of green.” Whitnall—and park designer Alfred Boerner—built upon the concepts of “parkways” and “park systems” that Olmsted and his partner, Calvert Vaux, first introduced in the mid-1880s.
The Milwaukee County Parks System has been deemed eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, as described in the 120-page, taxpayer-funded Milwaukee County Parks and Parkways Historic Properties Management Plan.
