Milwaukee: Mitchell Park

Kids flying kites in the open field adjacent the domes

Mitchell Park & Horticultural Conservatory

While we left Milwaukee a few months ago, I still daydream about long afternoons in hammocks in Milwaukee's Mitchell Park, just down the street from our house. This place is full of life and beauty, a real asset to the Silver City neighborhood.

The most iconic feature of the park are the Mitchell Domes - built in the heyday of Milwaukee's industrial prosperity. The 3-dome design won an architecture contest in 1969, replacing the previous boxy greenhouses. Each dome is home to a unique climate, supporting plants native to desert, tropical, and floral environments. These are particularly handy when Milwaukee freezes over and the residents retreat indoors. Visiting the domes in the winter was a quality respite from the indoor beer-drinking and complaining that I find so therapeutic while wondering why I live where the air hurts my face.

In the summer months, the park is home to barbecuing families, kids flying kites, and the authors of this blog sitting in a hammock. Trees that are bare in winter bloom in vibrant colors. The pinks, yellows and greens are a living relic of the original 1895 horticultural conservancy, preserved by the Milwaukee County Parks department. This painting on the landscape brings out the best in our community. Several birthdays a weekend take place on the picnic tables scattered throughout the park. Bouncy castles and balloons add to the whimsy of the trees, making a day in the park as much about people watching as unwinding in nature.

When Milwaukee's factories were shiny and new, Mitchell Park resembled a turn-of-the-century amusement park. The conservatory was founded on grounds that stretched into the neighborhoods to its south. It included a swimming pool, carousel, and a Harley Davidson sponsored track for bike and motorcycle races. I can't confirm that from internet searches, but saw an old map of the park at a museum a mile down the street. As the need for labor in Milwaukee expanded, the southern end was paved over and today houses our old neighbors in Leighton Boulevard West just east of Silver City. The remaining amenities tie the two neighborhoods together; with kids sharing a football field, basketball courts, a lake regularly stocked with fish, and wide open green spaces.

At night the park feels much different. In a heavily policed area, there is no better place to escape the fuzz than the shadows and underpasses in this wide open, sporadically lit space. The parking lot next to the domes usually had a cop in it, so you could safely sit on the benches overlooking the park at any hour. Sitting on the park's edge you can catch glimpses of shambolic figures passing in the night. This remnants of late night parties usually made it into the lake in the park's center. Milwaukee County's cleaning schedule of bi-yearly cleanings (from a wooden dinghy) left sun-bleached refuse in the weeds at the edge of the water for months at a time.

Maintenance of the park slows down in the winter, but quickly picks up once it gets warm. I righteously complained to Kateri for a year about this sad little bench. After it got nice out and still wasn't fixed, I filled out an online form and it was sit-able within the month. Lesson learned; complaining doesn't help unless you direct it to the right people! The parks department does great work with limited resources, and they're very responsive to feedback from people in the community.

Oh man do I love this park. First place I'm visiting next time I'm back in Milwaukee! If you're in the area, visit the domes and consider a donation. Two of the domes are getting a little crumbly - the desert and tropical areas are off-limits to avoid falling concrete. The floral dome is completely safe, but only through a short-term, low cost fix. There is not a good plan to invest in long term stability of this stupendous landmark - perhaps a federal infrastructure stimulus package would help? Seems like a better use of money than another tax cut tax cut that won't pay for itself...