A summer visit to Tenney-Lapham

Over the weekend I took a stroll around the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood to take some photographs of a fraKtional address and a newly-spotted fallout shelter sign.

It had been a while since I had strolled around Tenney Park and I found that the lagoon was lookin' mighty photogenic.

This little guy was not particularly afraid of the apeman. It hopped a little ways away from me as I approached but didn't fly away.

It was still early so the locks were not open. They would be doing brisk business later in the morning. 

Once through the park, I wandered the neighborhood. Similarly to the red-winged blackbird, this cardinal was comfortable with an apeman getting rather close.

Some lovers of amphibians live in the neighborhood.

Finally! A decent bunny photo.

I ran across 3 Trachte buildings that I'd never seen before, including this one. 

Lastly, it's the Two Face of garages. The folks on the left need to update the paint job.

Matutinal Meanderings: Am Ende

Read the previous installment of Matutinal Meanderings, Amble On.

I've been meaning to take some photographs of the totems that someone on Baldwin Street makes for some time. Methinks this person (or people) uses a chainsaw but I am not certain about that. And so I headed over there from E. Johnson.





I was hoping that there'd be some of the totems out and that my walk over there would not be for naught. There usually are some to be seen but who knows? Maybe they'd been sold or put into storage or the carver moved. Luckily there were plenty of totems to be seen.



I trekked about some more just idly strolling down the streets. Here's Mifflin Manor which is a wonderfully ironic name considering it's a dreadfully ugly concrete bunker.



On my final walk down E. Johnson I saw some beautiful homes including the one that is perpetually decorated for Halloween.











Lastly, I saw this manhole cover. Sure, it's a banal, utilitarian object but it was nice to see such a thing given a little artistic treatment.



There are surely more around town but I don't recall seeing them.

The Capital Times recently ran a story about gentrification in Madison. It said:

Areas that are beginning to see gentrification or are exhibiting conditions leading toward displacement include the central areas of Tenney-Lapham, Emerson East, Sherman and South Madison. These areas have not seen demographic change but have experienced more rapid rent and property value increases.

Note how it is the central area of Tenney-Lapham that is at the early stage of gentrification. Presumably the homes with lakefront property are and have been gentrified for some time. And the eastern edge of the neighborhood is home to lots of shiny new apartments – The Constellation, Galaxie, the Factory District Apartments, and Lyric Apartments – which cannot be cheap. Plus the Madison Youth Arts Center is coming soon and that plot on the 1200 block of E. Washington which is currently owned by the city for maintenance of fire vehicles will soon be available. Tenney-Lapham is gentrifying; it's a matter of how far it goes and who gets displaced.

Matutinal Meanderings: Amble On

Read Part I, "Matutinal Meanderings: A Return to Tenney-Lapham"

Heading out of Giddings Park it was down East Gorham I ambled. My plan was to check out all of the new development on East Johnson but I took a wee detour first. I moseyed up Russell Walk – carefully because the sidewalk probably hasn't seen any work since long before I lived in the area almost 25 years ago. Prospect Place took me to Washburn Place and the other house I resided in when I lived in Tenney-Lapham.



My then-girlfriend and I lived on the top floor and as I walked by I recalled sitting by our living room window listening to The Rolling Stones play "Tumbling Dice" across the lake at Camp Randall.



Washburn Place is a cozy street being only a block long, and a short one at that. It's right by the lake and has one way traffic. To top things off there were a couple mock Tudors across the street with an old pine tree between them. They just gave the street a nice vibe.





After my brief trip down memory lane, I started once again making my way to E. Johnson. I passed by this house which has a bulkhead door, something of a rarity in Madison.



The only other one that comes to mind is the house at Charter and West Johnson.

Soon enough I was at the corner of Blount and Johnson, immortalized in song by Madison's Velveteen Snackcake.





And there was The Caribou, a place I have spent many an hour.



When I lived on Dayton Street we had no air conditioning so my roommate and I would head down there to play cribbage and stay well hydrated with Capital Amber. By the time we got home, we were too tired to notice the heat. A few years later, friends and I would take up a residence there and get to know one of Madison's best bartenders ever, Ruthie.

One time I went there with a friend's father who used to work for the state patrol up in Tomah. Circa 1970 he got assigned to Madison as part of a force that was meant to keep Madison's finest from beating the student protesters too much. When he walked in he flashed back 30 years. He pointed out where a Nesco full of beef used to sit before commenting that it hadn't changed all that much.

Next to The Bou are all the shiny new apartments.





What a shame the developer couldn’t come up with something that was more like the old homes in the area. Not only do these buildings clash with the rest of the neighborhood but they are ugly. At best. Oh well - alia iacta est.

Just up the street the 800 block of E. Johnson is Tenney-Lapham's commercial center. Good Style Shop has a mural which was surely painted by the same person that did those for Next Door Brewing and Banzo Shük.



I can personally attest that Little Tibet is quite tasty.



Next to a luthier is the Cork 'n Bottle liquor store which I of course frequented on many an occasion. I fondly recall Jimbo holding court on his banjo as I perused the beer selection.



The store gave its name to Madison's beloved bluegrass group, the Cork 'n Bottle String Band.



Across Paterson Street is a place for all of your lapidary needs, Burnie's Rock Shop.



There's also a coffeehouse, an outpost of Salvatore's Tomato Pies, and a smattering of other businesses. Last year the Frau and I were at Salvatore's and I looked out the window only to see 14 storeys of the Galaxie (or was that the Constellation?) off in the distance. Things have certainly changed over the years. I don't have the numbers but there is surely more money in Tenney-Lapham these days.

I just looked up prices for those new apartments on the 700 block of E. Johnson. A 500 square foot studio goes for $1,225. This is not working class housing. Whether people of lesser means are forced out of the neighborhood remains to be seen. Gentrification need not mean displacement for the poorer residents of Tenney-Lapham.

The car wash still had not called me by this time so I kept going up E. Johnson to hopefully get some snaps of something I've been meaning to photograph for a while but had never gotten around to.

Continue to the finale of Matutinal Meanderings, "Am Ende"

Matutinal Meanderings: A Return to Tenney-Lapham

In a couple previous posts I detailed taking some laps around the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood. I noted that I had hoofed around the eastern part of it and that there was much more to see. Well, I finally got around to trekking about the western bit of Tenney-Lapham recently and so here it goes.

The morning began with dropping off my car at the car wash joint that sadly no longer has a giant octopus out front on East Washington just south of Ingersoll. From there I moseyed over to Lapham Elementary School which was apparently built in 1939.



Here at this fine institution of lower education they train our future leaders.



Considering the building's age, I would expect some more adornment on the exterior. Nothing outrageous but the building was just a little plain. Still, there were some neat bits such as these bas relief hoolies that flanked a doorway on the southeast side of the building.



Plus, as someone who has taken Latin, I appreciated the use of the "V" here.



Walking around the perimeter I noticed that this rather old tree has gobbled up a fencepost.



In addition to academics, kids can get back to the land and get their hands dirty in a garden on the southwest side of the schoolgrounds.





Exactly what they're growing in there is beyond me, but it's nice to see that the kids can get spend some time with nature and away from social media.

From there it was a block over to East Johnson. On the way there I spied one of the oldest sidewalk stamps I've seen in Madison – from 1959.



Plus I walked by the house of an aspiring vintner that has a trellis arch out front that has grapes growing on it.





As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the 1100 block of E. Johnson has some homes with unusually large setbacks from the street.



Most of them are fairly large homes but not really palatial estates so I have to wonder why they are so lucky, or unlucky if you have to remove snow off of those driveways, as to be so far from the street. Presumably whoever built them simply had the inclination and the money to do so.

Down at Baldwin Strasse there's Newport's Wooden Furnishings with its lovely inlaid tile entablature or whatever you call that part of a building.





Heading down Baldwin, I came across this garage with some neat crenellation.



Although Tenney-Lapham is not exactly a small neighborhood, it's not huge either. Still, it is home to four parks. I strolled through Reynolds Park previously and this time around I hit Tenney Park. So not only did Daniel K. Tenney get a neighborhood named after him, but also a large park. He donated the land as well money to develop the park.

Ducks and geese were enjoying the beach.



I walked out onto the breakwater which gets you a goodly ways from the shore and affords some nice views of Lake Mendota.





It was early yet and so there were no flotillas of fishermen nor eager maritime partiers waiting to traverse the locks. However, a few old duffers were holding court at a nearby table presumably lamenting the lack of fish that had nibbled at their lines.



The lagoon was quite mellow with but a solitary fisherman although there were birds and water fowl aplenty.



This is the A.G. Zimmerman bridge, named after Judge Arthur G. Zimmerman who ponied up some cash for its construction.



From Tenney it was over to Giddings Park. The city classifies it as a mini-park and provides no information for whom it was named. It sits behind Christ Presbyterian Church and is rather non-descript. In addition to being small, it lacks any amenities and consists mainly of a hillside and some shoreline.



A path leads along the shore to a bench and eventually into someone's backyard.



Not a place to pitch a wang dang doodle or even throw a frisbee around, it does have a nice view of the lake and serves well for some quiet contemplation.



I would not get to the final park in Tenney-Lapham, James Madison. Instead I went to check out the shiniest and newest buildings.

Read Part II, "Matutinal Meanderings: Amble On"