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"

The Starkweather (But No Moore) Park Expedition

The Eastmorland neighborhood here on Madison's east side is where I call home. It's got a split personality, of sorts, as the section south of Milwaukee Street is mostly single-family homes with a few apartments and the usual stuff you find in neighborhoods like churches, restaurants, taverns, stores, and whatnot. Having already perambulated through much of the southern part of Eastmorland (see here, here, and here), I decided to take a stroll north.

The northern third or so of Eastmorland features a disused concrete factory, an abandoned farm, and a smattering of commercial/industrial business. Oh, and Madison's main post office which apparently no longer sorts mail, those duties having been concentrated in Milwaukee. This means that, when I send cards to my in-laws on the other side of town, it first goes east for sorting and then sent back to Madison for delivery. I'm glad to see the Post Office is doing its part to combat climate change.

Also to be found is Starkweather Park and that was my destination on a recent walk. Well, truth be told, it was that and Voit Pond, a former gravel pit turned lake north of the farm's field.

I crossed Milwaukee Street and wandered onto what used to be the Durren farm. The property is now mostly a gravel lot used by construction crews as a staging area. Ergo you've got piles of gravel while sewage pipes/water mains make the lot a temporary home. At the north end where the gravel end and nature begins, I spied some pretty flowers.



From here it was off into the narrow wooded strip that runs between the Durren property and the farm fields which, to the best of my knowledge, is part of Starkweather Park. It was rough going with everything overgrown and fallen trees littered about. Every once in a while there was a clearing that allowed a peek out onto the field.



There was a also a fair amount of litter strewn about – mainly bottles and beer cans – but also a rather large pile of garbage.



At some point the woods ended and a small field of short grass began. There was a patch of flowers I'd never seen before and they smelled delightful.



On the far side the grass was quite tall but I spotted trail leading in. I thought that perhaps this is was how other folks looking to get to the pond went.



The grass ended and but the trail continued into the woods and it became well-worn.



The trail wound this way and that and, at one point, I looked up only to find a trio of tents.



The camp was quiet and no one seemed to be around but I did my best to walk around it rather than walk through what passed for their living room. However, this detour took me only about 7-8 feet away from the camp. It was sadly ironic to find the shelters of some homeless folks after having stumbled upon a homeless person inside that oddball fireplace with the Shrek-like antennae on Stoughton Road earlier in the day. I wasn't totally surprised, though, as other homeless people who lived out of their cars often park in the Swiss Colony lot. Though perhaps not as often as they used to these days.

The trail continued a short way past the camp before ending. Rather than struggle through more branches and brush, I decided to go west and see if I could get to Voit property. This involved climbing over an old barbed wire fence and so I tried to recall if I'd had a tetanus shot lately.

When I got over the fence, I found myself at the bottom of a small hill. Once I got to the top I looked out and saw the pond.



Descending the hill I saw that there was better access to the water a bit to the south so I began walking down the dirt road. It was littered with prints from cloven hooves. Did Satan hang out here? More likely deer, I reassured myself.



I reached the shore and found that the water was quite clear as a fish swam close in. The water was quite warm.



While shallow by the shore, I figure that it must get quite deep having been a gravel pit in a former life. Aside from the faint din of Highway 30 to the north, it was actually rather quiet and certainly quite peaceful. The bucolic scene was disturbed by the tops of a couple buildings in the distance, but, otherwise, you wouldn't think that you were actually in a city. If the Voit property ever gets developed, I hope they preserve this area.



After a time, I headed back north up the hill. I went down the far side and found piles of concrete chunks and broken slabs of black top which I found rather odd. Regardless of the detritus, there was a beautiful view of Starkweather Park.



Starkweather is a conservation park with most of it being wetlands. There is a path that runs along the east and north sides before going over Starkweather Creek and under Highway 30 and eventually running into Commercial Avenue. I was on the west side so I decided to hug the tree line on my way back.

It was again rough going with lots of downed trees and brush so I figured I'd head out in the wetland grass for a stretch. The grass was taller than me so I got a good aerobic workout trudging through it. I stumbled upon a couple small clearing where deer must go for naps.



Well, I pressed my luck and ended up in water – they are wetlands, after all – and turned back. Of course I couldn't actually find the dry patches that I traversed earlier and so my shoes got soaked. But I eventually made my way back to the woods where I took a breather. Being an office drone, I wasn't used to all that exertion. Hugging the tree line was again difficult so I went further in and found myself at the homeless camp once again. It was just as still and eerily quiet as before.

But this also meant I could easily find the path out. Instead of going south I took a detour to the shuttered Swiss Colony warehouse to check out some urban ruins, so to speak. The gate at the rear was open.



Where the property line ended, the park began and so I was treated to some fine vistas.



There were three piles of garbage more or less equally spaced – TVs, mattresses, etc. – but, oddly enough only one patch of graffiti.



Over on the east side of the building was a fire hydrant and next to it was this:



I would later discover that this is an indicator post, a thingy which allows one to open and close a valve that is buried.

My legs were pretty sore so I figured I'd grab a bus home since I was within spitting distance of the East Transfer Point. Unsurprisingly, the 31 bus left while I was still a short distance away and the 16 wouldn't depart for half an hour so I just hoofed it back home.

A few days after my walk I learned that the hill I had stood atop that overlooked the pond had, in fact, been another pond. It was filled in with road debris in 2005 for reasons unknown. This at least explained what all those chunks of concrete and blacktop were doing at the bottom of its north side.

While Starkweather Park is surely safe, much of the rest of that area looks like it will be developed in the near future. This coupled with all of the new construction on Cottage Grove Road will transform Eastmorland. I would not scoff at a coffeeshop at Milwaukee and Harding.

I look forward to returning to Starkweather Park. Next time, though, I will be using the trail. If I remember to bring my binoculars, I can do a little birdwatching. And my feet will stay dry.