09 July, 2019

A Few Laps Around Tenney-Lapham

On one summer's day I found myself with a couple hours to blow as my car was being deep cleaned in preparation for a lengthy trip. While a cup o' Joe from the shiny new coffeehouse down the street sounded good, I was by this time already fully caffeinated. And so I hit the pavement.

The first thing that came to mind was to take a couple snaps for a pair of then and now scenarios. A reader had directed me to the Madison Railroads Instagram page and I thought it'd be fun to take a look at what the streetscapes looked like now in a couple of the old photographs.

This first picture shows a train crossing Dickinson Street in 1965.

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I believe I managed to take my snap from more or less the same spot.

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A few blocks east at Dickinson and Wilson Street was this scene back in the late 1960s.

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And here's the intersection sans railroad tracks today.

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It is weird to contemplate trains traveling right down the center of Wilson Street but so it was. For more about trains – passenger rail – in Madison, checkout my blathering and other people's really neat photographs here.

Just up the street I ducked down Northern Court and found Stateline Distillery. I hadn't sampled their spirits at the time but have since come to appreciate their gin.

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Across the street was this anthropomorphized glass block.

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Back up Dickinson I went where I detoured to check out the seemingly abandoned warehouse on the 1400 block of East Washington. I think it's owned by the Mullins Group. Quite recently I learned that this building used to be the Red Dot potato chip factory. There is a room on the south side of the building that you can peer into. When I did so, I saw a few artistic ditties leaning against the wall.

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Crossing East Washington I found myself in the Tenny-Lapham neighborhood. The Tenney half of the name is for Daniel Tenney who was a member of the Madison Common Council and an important early figure in the formation of Madison parks. Increase Lapham was a naturalist who resided in Milwaukee. He mapped the Wisconsin Territory, charted Native American effigy mounds, and studied the flora and fauna of the state. In addition to having half a neighborhood named after him, there's also an elementary school and a beer.

I zipped over to the Yahara River Parkway and down to the shore.

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Being in a train mood, I decided to check out the rails that traverse the Yahara River.

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I'm not sure when the second set of tracks was removed. There was a pile of disused timbers (a.k.a. – sleepers) slowly decaying away off to the side as well as a cement base for what I presumed was a signal. Tucked away in the trees was a utility pole which presumably powered the signal at some point.

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Down by the river were more remnants of railroading past. A section of conduit came to an abrupt end while what I figured was the base of a pile(?) stood empty.

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Back down to East Wash I moseyed around the building that is home to the Parched Eagle Taproom and the Art In.

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The building is home to perhaps the most positive, self-image boosting sign in the city.

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Back to Dickinson and northwards where I poked around all of the sheds around Dayton and Mifflin. I recalled an article in Isthmus about the Trachte Bros. Company who made metal buildings in Madison from 1919 until 1986.

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Were any of these sheds Trachte Sheds? Indeed some were.

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I felt a bit sad that, despite having lived just down the street for a few years, I couldn't recall ever having checked out this part of the neighborhood during that time. Better late than never, I suppose.

Next stop: trying to find the house I used to live in.

A few more laps

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