The WPA Project That Changed a South Side Milwaukee Neighborhood

Kosciuszko Park already had a lagoon. It was one of the first improvements the city made after buying the 35-acre parcel on the South Side in 1890, and it was a fine place to row boats in summer and ice skate in winter.

Swimming was prohibited, though, so during hot spells, residents of the heavily Polish Fourteenth Ward could only gaze at the water with longing. Their neighborhood was the most densely settled in the city, and in the years before air conditioning, they simply sweltered.

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It took the Great Depression to cool things off. As the ranks of the unemployed swelled in the 1930s, the federal government launched a barrage of work relief programs to ease the suffering.

One of the largest New Deal initiatives was the Works Progress Administration, which proved to be a godsend for both idle workers and cash-strapped municipalities. In 1940, one of its final years, the WPA approved a $10 million improvement program for Milwaukee County’s parks.

A swimming pool for Kosciuszko was high on the list. Initial progress was rapid, but construction ground nearly to a halt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Despite wartime delays, the pool opened for business on the Fourth of July 1942, promising independence from the heat.

It was gargantuan by the standards of the time, with a capacity of 800,000 gallons and room for 2,350 swimmers. As this 1946 photograph demonstrates, the pool was hugely popular. Local police noted a 50% drop in juvenile crime during its very first season.

The Kosciuszko Park pool was a summertime attraction for more than a half-century, but its luster faded over the decades. In 1997, the pool was replaced by Pelican Cove, an urban waterpark designed to cool an entirely new generation of overheated South Siders.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK:

A wading pool attracted toddlers and the timid.
A state-of-the-art filtration system cleaned the entire contents of the pool every eight hours.
Completed in 1901, the Basilica of Saint Josaphat is a monument to the faith of the Polish immigrants who built it.
The pool’s deep end gave divers a chance to show off their skills on both low and high boards.
The sign cautioned swimmers to “Use slide only in forward sitting position.”