It was a perfect day for skating when this picture was taken in 1898. The sun was out, the ice was clear, and it was warm enough to leave the earmuffs at home.
These fashionable skaters were gathered on the Milwaukee River just above the North Avenue dam, an expanse of water that had been a recreational magnet for decades. A succession of dams dating back to 1843 had created a long, narrow lake that stretched nearly 2 miles upstream from North Avenue, almost as far as today’s Capitol Drive.
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It became a popular playground for Milwaukeeans seeking respite from the rigors of their six-day workweek, particularly in summer. Julius Rohn, a German-speaking Bohemian, opened a swimming school just above the dam in 1856, only 10 years after the city’s incorporation, and other entrepreneurs followed.
By 1900, the upper river was lined with canoe clubs, beer gardens, amusement parks, thrill rides and more swimming schools.
The fun didn’t stop when the weather turned cold. On winter Sundays like the one pictured here, Milwaukeeans flocked to the ice, whether for pickup hockey games and city-sponsored skating tournaments or for the simple pleasure of gliding effortlessly across frozen water. The impoundment was also a convenient source of ice for the city’s brewers and meatpackers.
Water pollution and competing attractions ended the river’s days as a resource for both recreation and refrigeration. People stopped coming in the 1920s and stayed away for decades.
This scene was gradually altered beyond recognition to anyone alive today. Trees now carpet the shaven hillside, apartment towers spike the skyline, and with the North Avenue dam removed, the river has narrowed to a chute of genuine whitewater, washing away all memories of Victorian skaters in their Sunday best.
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK
- Bechstein’s swimming school opened on the east bank of the river in 1897.
- These houses on Cambridge Avenue were nearly new in 1898.
- The coats were warm, the high-rise hats a concession to fashion.
- Boathouses on the riverbank gave their owners easy access to the water.
- Auguste Louise Wilhelmine Tilsner posed patiently for her husband, Hubert, a Teutonia Avenue dentist.
IN COLLABORATION WITH MILWAUKEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
