Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society
Civilian Conservation Corps workers built Whitnall Park.
Historians, park advocates and others were shocked by the unexpected demolition of a humble—yet irreplaceable—touchstone of Milwaukee County Parks history. Last month, while the world was just getting wind of an encroaching public health and economic crisis, county officials quietly ordered the bulldozing of the last local structure used by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. This historically designated structure in Whitnall Park, originally a repair shop, was destroyed without public notice or discussion.
County Executive Chris Abele’s administration ignored state historic preservation law in the unilateral removal of what was called the “CCC Building.” The 1,800-square-foot, board-and-batten structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 as part of the Root River Parkway historic district. It had been named a Milwaukee County Historic Landmark in 1996. The demolition cost taxpayers more than $11,000, plus utility-disconnection fees, not to mention the incalculable loss of historic value.
Photo courtesy of the Hales Corners Historical Society
Exterior shot of the razed building from 2010
Milwaukee County is legally required to consult with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) before razing any designated historic property it owns. Wisconsin Statute 66.1111 mandates, “In the earliest stage of planning any action…a political subdivision shall determine if its proposed action will affect any…listed property.” The National Register is the official federal list of historic properties deemed worthy of preservation and is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Wisconsin Historical Society administers the program in Wisconsin.
The planned demolition “never came before Wisconsin’s State Historic Preservation Office,” as required by state law, said SHPO compliance officer Katie Kaliszewski last week. The purpose of consultation is to consider alternatives to demolition and ways to limit or mitigate adverse impacts on historic properties.
Jeremy Lucas, deputy director for administration and planning for Milwaukee County Parks, said there was “minimal discussion about the historic character” of the building when a “committee” of county officials decided to demolish it.
The CCC Building was being used for storage, including recently for the producers of “China Lights” displays at Boerner Botanical Gardens (BBG). “We couldn’t see any future use for it,” said Lucas. He cited parks department goals that stress “number of patrons served and activities provided” with “the safety of patrons as the highest priority.”
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Lost Legacy of a Transformative Era
The barnlike CCC Building was visible along the road to the Gardens visitor center, with signs and plaques honoring its history. A large wooden sign says that CCC Camp 636 operated there from 1933 until 1942. A plaque notes that the building was renovated in 1986 by the Green Tree Garden Club “for use in programs to teach horticulture concepts and gardening school.” As BBG’s first children’s classroom, it was used until the new visitor center opened in 2003.
Nell Schneider, who raised funds for that program as executive director of the Friends of Boerner Botanical Gardens (FBBG), said former CCC laborers living in the area also periodically met there. “Gal, don’t ever forget that I helped build this place,” CCC veteran Bill Raggio once told Schneider as they overlooked the gardens. “Those men were very proud of the work they had done” at various sites, she said.
Longtime county park commissioner and socialist Charles Whitnall proposed the interlinking Milwaukee County Parks System in his 1923 master plan. Following far-sighted land acquisitions, Alfred Boerner, the first Milwaukee County landscape architect, designed widespread projects that were shovel-ready for New Deal programs such as the CCC and Works Progress Administration.
Historian John Gurda wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2008: “The Civilian Conservation Corps left its mark all over the county, but its work in the area around Whitnall Park is especially noteworthy. Not only did the lads of the CCC grade, pave and landscape more than four miles of parkway along the Root River, they also developed a network of lagoons in the park itself, each held in place by a picturesque stone dam…Given the program's impact on the area, it's fitting that the last CCC camp building in Milwaukee County - a humble service garage - is located in Whitnall Park.”
Disregarding Well-Documented History
Demolition of the CCC Building ignored Milwaukee County Parks’ own documented research and management policies regarding historic properties. The Milwaukee County Parkway Inventory (download=) and the Milwaukee County Parks and Parkways Historic Properties Management Plan (download), completed in 2012 and 2013 respectively, were created to guide compliance with preservation laws and streamline grant applications and projects involving historic sites. MCP and Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation co-commissioned Mead & Hunt to develop the reports, which identify the CCC Building as a “contributing resource” in the Root River Parkway historic district.
The collaborative planning effort also included a “programmatic agreement” with state and federal agencies. Guy Smith, Milwaukee County Parks executive director, signed the latest version of the agreement in 2018. Despite being taxpayer-funded, the reports are not posted on Milwaukee County’s website. “As designed, our County Parks website doesn’t have a suitable location to post historical studies,” Lucas wrote in an email.
Wisconsin’s Architectural and History Inventory, which is accessible online, lists the “astylistic utilitarian building…[as the] only extant structure related to the 1930s CCC Camp that was located in Whitnall Park. The CCC men did much of the physical construction of the park during the 1930s.” Although nondescript, the building was emblematic of the CCC’s local legacy, which also included camps in Estabrook, Kletzsch and Sheridan parks and along Honey Creek Parkway. CCC men, age 18 to 28, worked for “three hots and a cot” plus a modest monthly stipend, most of which was sent to their families.
Keeping the Public and History Experts in the Dark
Interviews and documents obtained through open-records requests reveal that numerous top-level Milwaukee County Parks managers were in the loop about demolition-related activities. That included Guy Smith; James Tarantino, director of recreation and business services; Sarah Toomsen, director of planning and development; and Shirley Walzak, director of Boerner Botanical Gardens as well as Lucas, who moved from Administrative Services to Parks in 2019. However, none of the released documents indicate precisely who made the decision. Demolition bids were first obtained in December 2016 by lower-level parks staff.
The public was not given any opportunity to comment on the pending demolition and stakeholder groups apparently were not informed. That includes Milwaukee County Historical Society, which is charged with safekeeping county archives; the Hales Corners Historical Society; and the Greentree Garden Club. Ellen Hayward, president and CEO of the FBBG did not respond to multiple requests for comment before this article’s deadline. However, several current and recently serving board members said they do not recall being informed about plans to demolish the CCC Building.
Milwaukee County Supervisor Patti Logsdon, whose district includes much of the 627-acre Whitnall Park, and Supervisor Jason Haas, chair of the board’s Parks, Energy and Environment Committee, both confirmed that they were not informed about the pending demolition. Expenditures for this demolition were stealthily tucked within quarterly reports of park projects sent to the county board, listed only as “System-wide Demolitions” without identifying data, unlike other project updates.
Responsibilities of Public Stewardship
The obligation of “complying with all regulations or restrictions applicable to any project lies with government administrators,” said Jerome Heer, Milwaukee County’s former internal auditor, who retired in 2018. That includes historic preservation laws, he said. “It does not matter whether non-compliance is by default or design.”
Heer said government officials also have obligations to the general public, friends groups, donors and others. “It’s a slap in the face to the donors who previously refurbished that building. Maybe that club or some other group or individual would have come forward” if they knew that this historic building was in jeopardy. If demolition had been publicly debated, and the SHPO was consulted as legally mandated, Heer said that the eventual outcome “would have been through an honest and transparent process, not done in the dark of night.”
Alan Strekow expressed concern that other historic treasures within parks could disappear through secrecy and “demolition by neglect.” The author of a book about master ironworker Cyril Colnik, Strekow worries, for example, that the red barn from a farm predating Whitnall Park’s development, and listed in the National Register, could be quietly razed.
Sue Kehm “was truly saddened to learn that the building was demolished,” especially without warning. She was lead teacher for BBG’s children’s program when it was held in the CCC building and her husband Ray formerly served on FBBG’s board. “It really represented the history of all the CCC work,” she said. She hopes that Milwaukee County Parks “finds meaningful ways to commemorate that history and that young people will continue learning about it” as they did when the building stood.
Coincidentally, the Milwaukee County Historical Society was invited recently to address the Hales Corners Historical Society (HCHS) about “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” a nickname, referencing President Frank Delano Roosevelt, who initiated the CCC. Despite an announcement mentioning “Whitnall Park, where a CCC building still stands,” Steve Schaffer, assistant archivist for MCHS, learned just before his March 10 lecture that the CCC building itself was history. Strekow, HCHS president, happened to notice the building’s demise on a walk and informed the speaker.
Heer said that most historically significant buildings owned by Milwaukee County are under Parks Department oversight, which manages about 400 structures. Heer said there are responsible ways to avert continued demolition by neglect, especially of irreplaceable historic legacies. “Yes, this building is gone now,” Heer said, “but how can we make sure this [type of process] does not happen again?”
