Falling Heath? Fairy Chasm? Port Sunlight? A short history of town’s oddest names.
Falling Heath? Fairy Chasm? Port Sunlight? A short history of town’s oddest names. Back to the full article.
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Jac. Donges and Fred Usinger had stores across the street from each other, and were in-laws.
Ive always been curious about Atkinson Dr simce it doesnt seem to go to Ft Atkinson and also Wausaukee Rd (124th Street) since the only Wausaukee i know of is in Marinette County.
Casey,
The entries from my book on those two streets are below:
ATKINSON AVENUE
From 600 West and 3500 North to 3200 West and 4600 North
Origin: Arlington Heights
Vickers T. Atkinson was a member of the County Board that approved the Williamsburg Heights Subdivision in 1889. What had been known as the County Road was renamed Atkinson Avenue in the newly approved development. Besides being a county supervisor and city alderman, Atkinson was the state veterinarian and president of the State Veterinary Association. He died in 1891.
WAUSAUKEE ROAD
Washington-Ozaukee County border
This name is apparently a misspelling of a contraction of WAShington and OzAUKEE, the two counties it separates. It is spelled Wasaukee in Mequon and Germantown, while Ozaukee County and Milwaukee spell it this way. The city acquired the triangle of land, which is not in Milwaukee County, when a restaurant owner there wanted police and fire protection. Milwaukee, in an expansion mode and willing to provide the protection, annexed its only land in Washington County.
About 40 years ago I was on a bike ride with friends and Lu Rath, the leader, went north on Lake Drive into the Donges Bay subdivision. We followed the road to the end and walked through some private land, down the bluff with our bikes, and crossed the creek in the bottom of the ravine. I remember seeing remains of a mill or dam along the lake shore. Was the creek dammed up in the past forming a lake behind with summer cottages surrounding the lake? We came out of the ravine on Zedler Lane.
That triangle of land by Wausaukee Rd today is the Waste Management MRF:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Waste+Management+-+Milwaukee+MRF+-+Northside/@43.193138,-88.065001,692
And according to http://www.historicaerials.com (search with GPS coords), has either been vacant or contained only small structures since.
@ Ron Friedel
There are similar dam-like structures in other ravines in the area. The ones I’m thinking of are near the woodland loop in the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. From the looks of them, they were probably built as erosion control measures. If you were to visit the nature center and ask some of the staff, they might have a better answer.