MCKINLEY PARK - LAKE MICHIGAN PARKWAY NORTH

MCKINLEY PARK - LAKE MICHIGAN PARKWAY NORTH

Milwaukee

Milwaukee

1887

2011,2026

park

NA (unknown or not a building)

No

2011- McKinley Park was acquired in 1887 as Flushing Tunnel Park. Its origin is tied to public sanitation improvement. Flushing Tunnel was built in the mid-1880s under McKinley Park to back flush the Milwaukee River. The park has mowed lawns and deciduous trees throughout. A marina, piers, and docks, comfort stations, concession stands, bridges and a community sailing center. McKinley Park is part of the Lake Michigan Parkway North. 2026: Flushing Tunnel Park (now McKinley Park) spans from Veterans Park to the south and Bradford Beach to the north and is largely defined by Lake Michigan to the east and N Lincoln Memorial Drive to the west. The park is part of a larger connected park system. The park has mowed lawns and deciduous trees throughout. A marina, yacht club, sailing center, comfort stations, fish cleaning station, concession stand, round house, rental buildings, storages buildings, picnic pavilion, sculpture, bridges, beach, parking lots, and portions of the Oak Leaf Trail. McKinley Park is part of the Lake Michigan Parkway North. The City of Milwaukee acquired Flushing Tunnel Park (now McKinley Park) in 1887 as part of a public sanitation improvement project. The park consisted of Flushing Tunnel was built in the mid-1880s under the park to back flush the Milwaukee River, the pump house, Flushing Tunnel Station (1888) and the beach. Additional land was acquired by 1912, and a yacht club, beach, and other boating facilities were constructed. The park was renamed McKinley Park in the 1930s. In the 1960s the original yacht club (ca. 1880s) was demolished, and a new one was erected along with additional parking spaces and docks. During this period storage buildings, a concession stand, roundhouse and comfort station were erected. In the 1970s and 1980s three guard houses, two comfort stations, two rental shops, a concession stand, a storage building, sailing center, and a fish cleaning station were built. The late 1990s and early 2000s brought another comfort station, sculpture, yacht club members building with pool, garage, McKinley Overlook, yacht club guardhouse, and the Brady Street Pedestrian Bridge. In 2008, a former U.S. Coast Guard station in the park was demolished and a picnic pavilion was built. Around 2010 a community sailing center, and pedestrian bridge were constructed. This property was evaluated for the National Register under Criteria A, B, and C. Flushing Tunnel Park is recommended as a contributing resource to the potentially NRHP-eligible Lake Michigan Parkway North Historic District under Criteria A: Community Planning, and/or Criteria C: Landscape Architecture with a period of significance spanning from 1928 through 1965. Preliminary research did not suggest any potential significance under Criterion B: People.

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Not Listed

Yes