The Corona Diaries Vol. 21: The Coolest Shrine in Madison

Late June 2021

An entry or two ago I explained that the historic Wonder Bar here in Madison had closed and that the building was looking at an ignominious fate at the hands of a wrecking ball. So one Saturday earlier this month I set out on my bicycle to get a few photos of it before it was gone forever.

On my way south, I stopped at a beach on the shore of Lake Monona to take a look out onto the water. The sidewalk is up on a small hill that looks down upon the beach so you get a really nice view of the lake. This park has a few bespoke benches which I believe were made by a friend's sister who specializes in metal art.

I don't know why but they have this Victorian steampunk vibe to them in my eyes.

I continued on my way and soon enough I was at Olin Park. The area became a park in 1910. Before that in 1854 the Lakeside Water Cure was built here on the lakeshore.

It was apparently a health spa-resort venture where guests could receive hydrotherapy. I don't know what hydrotherapy entails, but the whole scenario makes me think of the movie The Road to Wellville. It failed and became the Lakeside House, a hotel which was quite popular. The winds of change kept shifting until the city bought the land and made it a park.

Not being in a hurry, I took the long way through the park which took me across Wingra Creek and along the lakeshore for a stretch. At one point I found myself at the entrance to Turville Point Conservation Park. Turville Point is a small peninsula that juts out into Lake Monona to form Turville Bay.

I could not recall ever having moseyed around Turville Point so I locked my bike onto the empty bike rack at the park's entrance and started walking.

While I could never quite escape the din of the expressway and/or John Nolen Drive, it was still rather calm and peaceful.

I disturbed a lot of birds as I strode down the path including this one. I am not sure what it is because, even though we own two copies of Birds of Wisconsin, I cannot find either of them. The only bird I know of with a green head like that is the grackle but that doesn't look like one.**

I took the longest path which was about 1.5 miles and went around the perimeter of the point. And so I got some nice views of the lake.

A mallard hen and her ducklings were cruising around while a muskrat was lazily floating through the algae bloom.

Madison parks are being overrun with invasive plants – mainly garlic mustard, methinks – and so, in addition to encouraging people to pick it, the city has been renting trips (yes, I looked it up) of goats and leaving them at parks to eat up all the unwanted plants. That day it was Turville Park's turn.

There was one black goat and of course it made me think of the goat Black Philip from the movie The Witch. Black Philip, of course, being Satan's disguise on earth as he torments a Puritan family.

My stroll around Turville Park was an unexpected but quite pleasurable detour. The Wonder Bar was only a couple of blocks away so it didn't take me long to pedal over there and take some photographs. I really hope that a space and the money is found to move the building.

I biked down the street a bit more and came to a house that is the only one I know of in town that has a belfry.

The bell is still there.

Either the person who built it was a bit of an eccentric or the building was a church previously. I wonder if the current owners get drunk occasionally and try to ring the bell.

I slowly made my way downtown and came across another duck with her ducklings. This time she wasn't a mallard and because of the above problem locating a certain reference book, I am unsure what type of duck we're looking at here. Regardless, those youngins are mighty cute.

I checked out a couple of recently completed buildings as well as a couple still in progress. And, sadly, I also rode by an old house where a former girlfriend had lived when we dated. It's one of seven to be demolished to make way for another shiny new apartment building. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about the house – I think it has been referred to as being in the Madison vernacular style or something like that - but I had many good times there and hate to see it go.

Like a fool I decided to head to the far east side to check out a couple of things that I'd been planning to see once biking season came around.

The first was of the few remaining farms left in the city limits.

I don't think it's a working farm but the barn still stands and I am sure the house has been added onto over the years but it's neat to see a bit of the area's agricultural history remain. It's a huge lot so someone has about as close as you can get to a back 40 in the city.

Just up the road was The Founder Shrine built in 1952. Now, it may have been less than a mile as the crow flies but it was all uphill and I thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest biking up that hill at about 1 M.P.H. I am surprised that I wasn't passed by any turtles. Anyway, it is a Schoenstatt Shrine, the first built in the U.S. I gather that they are all replicas of the original in Schoenstatt, Germany. According to Wikipedia, the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement is a movement within the Roman Catholic Church that started there in 1914.

The area around the shrine was all trees and corn fields until fairly recently. Luckily the shrine is set back rather far from the road so it is still in a peaceful setting.

I'd never known about it until this past winter when I put in on my list of places to bike to come good weather.

Now, I am not Catholic but I did thank the Lord upon stepping inside because someone had been inspired to install air conditioning which was just what I needed on a 90 degree day. And it was turned up to 11 too as it was ice cold in there.

The bonus photo this time is of a Chicago Worlds Fair coin from 1933 that I found amongst the stash of coins I inherited from my father.

**Book found! Best guess is that it was a tree swallow.