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Reprinted from Historic Madison:
A Journal of the Four Lake Region,
Volume XII: 1995. ©Historic Madison, Inc.
Maple Bluff Madison's Beautiful North Shore Suburb by Doug McLean
The village of Maple Bluff is a small, homogeneous, residential suburb of Madison. Maple Bluff occupies a narrow ring of Lake Mendota shoreline in the northeast town of Madison and the southeast town of Westport. It is a village with numerous large and stately residences, some of which occupy commanding views along one of the most scenic parts of the lake.
The village of Maple Bluff is made up of five separate real estate developments that date from the late l9th or early 20th century: Steensland (1892), Lakewood (1912), Baywood (1922), Fuller's Woods (1924), and Maple Bluff (1926) .
The village limits are defined by Lake Mendota on the west, Sherman Avenue and the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad tracks on the east, the Yahara River on the south, and Warner Beach on the north. One area, Fuller's Woods, is separated from the rest of the village by Burrows Park, a city of Madison park.
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Early History of the Region
The Native Americans who occupied the Four Lakes Region before the advent of the white man were Winnebago, who had many summer encampments in the Maple Bluff area. There was a large one on the north side of the lake; others were located in Fuller's Woods and on the Mendota Hospital grounds. While at the University of Wisconsin in 1882, Thomas E. Coleman wrote that there had once been an encampment on McBride's Point (the "Upper Bluff"); the mounds were still present when cottages began to be built there in the 1890's.
The Native Americans had camps all around Lake Mendota, but they were especially attracted to the north side of the lake because it comprised a dense forest of mature trees, an area excellent for hunting. One reason for this heavy forest was because Lake Mendota protected the land from the prairie fires that swept northward; thus the dense maple grove on McBride's Point from which the village gets its name.
One of the most heavily used trails of the Native Americans was that which ran north to the village of Portage from the north side of Lake Mendota. This trail went through the present village. To mark their trails, the Indians bent tree limbs so that they pointed out the directions of the paths. For many years there was a twisted elm in the rear of the property at 200 Lakewood Boulevard which had been used as a trail marker. The limb that had been tied down was removed in the 1950's because it hung into the street. This elm, one of the oldest and largest in the state, was later a victim of Dutch Elm disease.
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The McBride House
The first permanent settler in the Maple Bluff region was James Douglas McBride, who came to America from Ireland in 1803. In the 1840's, he visited Madison and was so pleased with the area that he bought 500 acres of land on the lake, extending from what is now East Gorham Street to land that would later be occupied by the Mendota State Hospital. He and his wife Mary built in 1849 a handsome Italianate-style house of red brick. In 1868 this house was sold to Halle Steensland, a Norwegian immigrant and prominent Madison banker.
Steensland occupied the house until 1892, when he sold it to Samuel H. Marshall, a gentleman farmer and son of one of the founders of the Marshall and Ilsley Bank of Milwaukee. In 1906, the house was purchased by Senator Robert M. LaFollette and it is now known as the LaFollette House (see later). From its commanding view of Lake Mendota, the McBride property stretched down the hill almost to the edge of the lake.
McBride and his wife were enthusiastic gardeners and horticulturalists, and grew many varieties of trees on their estate. Their son, Alexander McBride, was employed in 1847 to plant the trees on the Capitol Park.
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Other Early Land Owners
James McBride died in 1854 and his estate was divided. Alexander, the eldest son, kept the house and a parcel of land around it. Another son, John, kept a parcel which included all of Fuller's Woods. By 1861, the property had been divided among nine owners. John and Alexander owned about half of it; some of the other owners were Thomas Reynolds, N.W. Dean, M. Roth, J.G. Dengel, B. Veerhusen, and Governor Leonard J. Farwell. Farwell also owned land on the north side of the lake; hence Governor's Island.
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Industrial Developments Along the Yahara River
Leonard Farwell had come to Madison from Milwaukee in 1847, attracted by the beauty and business potential of the region. He purchased an extensive tract on the east side, comprising a part of the city and a part of McBride's estate. In addition, he obtained rights to the unimproved water power of the Catfish (Yahara) River at the outlet of Lake Mendota. To harness the water power, he hired a crew which straightened the channel of the Yahara River and dammed Lake Mendota, raising its level two feet and lowering the level of Lake Monona one foot. In the summer of 1849 a saw mill was erected, and the following year a grist mill. At the same time, a brewery was begun, purchased in 1852 by John Rodermund and gradually enlarged. Industrial development flourished at the outlet of Lake Mendota into the 20th century. After Rodermund's business failed, the brewery was purchased by another local brewer, Joseph Hausmann (whose main brewery was at the corner of State and Gorham Streets).
In addition to his industrial developments, Farwell had the forest cleared for city streets (including East Washington Avenue and WIlliamson Street), laid roads out to thesurrounding countryside (including the Lodi Road, that later became Sherman Avenue), graveled and graded the city streets, began the drainage of the low lands between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, built sidewalks, started the first woolen factory, started the first machine shop and foundry, and built the first bridge over the Yahara River.
Before this Yahara River bridge was erected, it had been extremely difficult to travel between Madison and the farms on the east and north side. However, even with the bridge the Maple Bluff area remained remote from Madison in the days when only horse-drawn vehicles were available.
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Late 19th Century Developments
By 1873 there were more than a dozen individuals with holdings in the Maple Bluff area. Farwell had lost all his property in the Panic of 1857, and Alexander McBride had sold most of his land to the William Woodward, Sr. family, who also lived for a while in the McBride house. Some of the other land holders in Maple Bluff in the early 1870's were H. Sachtjen, B. Veerhusen, D. Nicholson, H. Steensland, and J.G. Dengel (for whom Dengel's Bay in Lakewood is named).
According to William Woodward,Jr., the land was poor for farming so that grazing was the best use. However:
Sometimes the cows wandered too close to the edge of the bluff and fell off into the lake. If you could get a rope there soon enough, and [the rope was] long enough, and if the cow didn't break a leg; maybe you could save it.
Woodward also told of an incident that occurred after the death of ³Uncle" John McBride shortly after the Civil War. When he died, it was rumored that he had buried his wealth on his estate in Fuller's Woods. Many Madisonians came out at night and dug up the ground around his cabin.
One morning the imprint of a three-legged iron pot was found in a hole that had been dug the night before. Who got it, and what was in it, nobody ever found out.
In 1871 the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad built a line between Madison and the Twin Cities. Out of Madison, the tracks curved north and northwest around Lake Mendota in the direction of Waunakee. Today, these tracks form part of the northern and eastern boundaries of the village of Maple Bluff.
Two men associated with the railroad, Alder Ellis and George Dunlap, also owned land in Maple Bluff. They intended to make McBride's Point a summer resort for Chicago people, but left the railroad before the project materialized. (Instead, Lake Geneva became the summer haven for wealthy Chicago businessmen.)
Another industry located in what would become Maple Bluff was the Kurtz and Huegel Ice Company, built near 309 Lakewood Boulevard (site of the present Maple Bluff beach). A railroad spur from the Chicago and Northwestern was run down to the lake and the harvested ice was shipped all over the Midwest and as far away as St. Louis and New Orleans.
Next to the ice company was a slaughterhouse run by M. J. Hoven, whose specialty was sausage. Undoubtedly one of the reasons for locating here was to obtain ice for chilling the meat for shipping. The cattle were grazed on the high ground of what is now the Lakewood region of Maple Bluff. When Stanley Hanks built a house at 315 Lakewood about 30 years later, his construction crew dug up large numbers of bones, remains of the slaughter operation. Both the ice company and the slaughterhouse were gone by the beginning of the 20th century, but the railroad spur remained until the late 1920's.
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Halle Steensland
A major land owner in the Maple Bluff area was Halle Steensland, a prominent Norwegian immigrant who was vice consul of Sweden and Norway for many years. Steensland came to America from Norway in 1854; in 1855 he came to Madison where he clerked in a store, studied briefly at the University of Wisconsin, and then went into business for himself. Steensland helped organize the Hekla Fire Insurance Company, became its president, and in 1890 organized the Savings Loan and Trust Company (later part of the Bank of Madison), of which he was the president and treasurer.
In 1863 Steensland purchased 175 acres of farm and timber land in an area that would later become part of Maple Bluff. In 1868 he added to his holdings by purchasing the McBride house and surrounding acreage, to which the family moved in 1872. His daughter, Helen Steensland Nielson, later related:
It was a happy playground for us children. We early learned to manage a rowboat...My father allowed the older boys to have a sailboat on Lake Mendota and on moonlight nights, he went with them to troll for bass. There were berries in great profusion in the nearby woods...and two orchards with both summer and winter apples...My father kept bees one year and they were his sole responsibility...During our early years at Maple Bluff my father transplanted saplings of maple, linden, and elm to the city streets so that in years to come Madison streets bore witness to his forethought and civic pride. [Helen Amalie Steensland Nielson, "Notes from the Past, " 1950, unpublished manuscript]
About 1880, Steensland bought an additional 64 acres from D. Nicholson; his holdings included most of McBride's Point as well as what is now the southern half of the Maple Bluff Country Club.
In 1887 Steensland platted the outer rim of McBride's point with the intention of selling lots for summer cottages; the plat was called "Steensland" on the maps.
A few lots were purchased, and several cottages were erected through the last decade of the l9th and the first decade of the 20th century. Most of these were not typical summer cottages; they were large and more closely resembled houses. By 1920 many had been winterized and were year-long dwellings.
As a matter of convenience for his business, Steensland moved back into the city of Madison. In 1892, he built a large brick house at 146 Langdon Street and in 1896 he moved into his last house, at 315 N. Carroll Street, where he lived until he died in 1910. In 1897 he sold the Maple Bluff house and 66 acres of land to Samuel Marshall; a few years later Marshall purchased an additional 57 acres. Marshall lived in the McBride/Steensland House and cultivated the estate as a fruit farm, raising cherries, apples, grapes, and other fruits.
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The LaFollettes of Maple Bluff
In 1906 Samuel Marshall sold his house and 60 acres of the farm to Robert M. LaFollette (the rest was sold to the Maple Bluff Golf Club) . Young Philip LaFollette has described the day his father bought the farm:
In the fall of 1905, Mother and Father had ridden horseback over the countryside around Madison looking for a desirable farm. They decided that when we left the Executive Residence we would move to a farm. The place they liked above all was a 60 acre farm 3 1/2 miles from the Capitol Square, with 1200 feet of shoreline. The price, $30,000, seemed awfully high. Nevertheless, when I came home from school one afternoon, Mother was on the phone. She hung up with a wonderful smile and said: "Daddy has just signed the papers, and we have bought Maple Bluff Farm. "
Enlarged several times over its distinguished life, the house is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
McBride's Point
Some of those living on or owning lots in Steensland (McBride's Point) in 1890 were George Burrows, Major D.C. Poole, F.M. Brown, F.G. Brown, Professor D.B. Frankenburger, Carl and Hobart Johnson, and Amos P. Wilder.
Amos Wilder, the editor (1894-1904) of the Wisconsin State Journal, had a cottage on Maple Bluff. He was the
**...beyond the turn of the lake shore to the north...we came upon Maple Bluff or MacBride's Point, one of the best picnic sites ever placed by nature within convenient reach of a town. Now it is occupied by homes, but then its use was as free as the air, and no college boy or girl ever thought or cared who owned it. It rose precipitously from the surface of the waters about 80 feet, with one or two places where it was possible to ascend from the lake to the summit of the bluff There a plateau, two or three acres in extent, was covered by a beautiful grove, clear of underbrush and shading a fine green sod. The prospect across the blue waters of the lake toward the city and the University...presented scenes of exceptional interest and beauty.... With such scenic background, the memories of a student of Wisconsin in the Eighties are filled with incidents of picnic adventure. [pp. 190-191 in Frederick A. Pike, A Student at Wisconsin, Fifty Years Ago. 1935. Democrat Printing Co., Madison.]
**father of the playwright Thornton Wilder, and the latter spent his boyhood days playing in the woods of McBride's Point. In 1906 Amos Wilder was appointed U.S. Consul at Hong Kong by President Theodore Roosevelt and left Madison for good.
In the early 1900's it was easier to travel between McBride's Point and Madison by water than by land. The area was a popular picnicking area as well as a growing cottage area. In the early 1880's the Point was regularly visited by the stearm yacht "Mendota" that had been launched in 1877 by E.H. Freeman. One of the boat landings was located where 531 Farwell Drive is today. The fare for the ride to Maple Bluff was $0.25. It was to E.H. Freeman and his brother that William Woodward, Sr. sold his estate (about 30 acres) for $6,000.
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The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association
The first permanent road running through the village was Farwell Drive, completed in 1897 by the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association. This road was one of a series of "pleasure drives" built by this association in the late l9th century. At this time, Halle Steensland still had extensive land holdings in the Bluff, and donated land to use as the Farwell Drive right of way.
Farwell Drive entered the present Maple Bluff where Roxbury Road is today and followed the course of what is presently Lakewood Boulevard until it reached the area of the LaFollette house and farm. The road ran through the extensive cherry orchard which Samuel Marshall had developed near the lake. From there the road followed the present course of Farwell Drive over the Bluff and north along the lake (now Warner Beach) until it reached the Mendota State Hospital and Governor's Island.
Around 1905 another road was built by the Association connecting Farwell Drive with Sherman Avenue; this was built across the northern section of McBride's Point through the Woodward Estate. In the mid-1960's, this road was removed by the Maple Bluff Country Club up to the tracks of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and the bridge spanning the tracks was also removed. These were the only two roads in Maple Bluff up until the time the land was platted by the Lakewood Land Company in 1915.
In 1899 the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association also began the construction of Tenney Park and in 1903 the Yahara Parkway connecting Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. These two developments greatly enhanced the value of property east and north of Madison.
In 1905, to commemorate his 50 years of residence in Madison, Halle Steensland donated $10,000 to the Park and Pleasure Drive Association for the construction of a bridge across the Yahara River at East Washington Avenue. Although not directly associated with Maple Bluff, this bridge was a major contribution to the opening up of Madison's east side. In 1906, the city council named it "Steensland Bridge", and a plaque is on the bridge commemorating this event.
In 1909, real estate developer George B. Burrows bequeathed 12 acres of lakeshore to the Park and Pleasure Drive Association which became Burrows Park. When the land holdings of the Pleasure Drive Association were transferred to the Madison Park Commission in 1937, Burrows Park became incorporated into the city of Madison, explaining how this "island" of city of Madison property sits within the village of Maple Bluff.
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Maple Bluff Golf Club
The Maple Bluff Golf Club was the first golf course in the Madison area, being established in 1899. The cottages on McBride's Point rented a field from Samuel Marshall (at that time the owner of the LaFollette property) that was between the Bluff and the railroad tracks. The first course had five holes, but in 1900 a 40 acre tract was purchased and the course improved. In the summer of 1901 the first club house was finished; by 1902 there were over 200 members. In 1921 a tornado ripped the roof off the club house and the original structure was replaced by the present club house, which has been enlarged and improved several times.
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Lakewood Land Company
The Lakewood Land Company was incorporated about 1909, and the principal stockholders were members of the John A. Johnson family. John A Johnson had immigrated from Norway in 1844 and had arrived in Madison in 1861. He participated with Halle Steensland in the organization of the Hekla Fire Insurance Company. In 1881 he joined E.M. Fuller in the organization of the Fuller and Johnson Manufacturing Company and was soon its president and a major stock holder. (Fuller lived in the area now called Fuller's Woods; he also built the Fuller Opera House, one of the principal Wisconsin venues for traveling musicians in the late l9th and early 20th century.) Several years later John Johnson on his own founded the Gisholt Machine Company which by the turn of the century was one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the state.
John Johnson¹s three sons, Hobart, Carl, and Maurice, formed the Lakewood Land Company and purchased 123 acres of land extending from the Maple Bluff Golf Club southwest to the Burrows property. The first Lakewood plat was established in 1912, put together from land owned by Steven Roth, M.J. Hoven, Christopher Pfister, J. McLay, L. Decker, and the Kurtz and Huegel ice Company. A land office was erected in 1912 where Lakewood Boulevard and Sherman Avenue met. This land office was moved several times and now stands in Fireman's Park as the Girl Scout cabin.
It was just at this time that the noted landscape architect John Nolen was working on his famous ³redesign² of the city of Madison and he was hired by the Land Company to design the Lakewood plat. Because of the small size of lots in Nolen's design, his detailed layout was not used, but the developers retained the overall pattern of the major streets: Lakewood, Cambridge, and Kensington.
The Johnson brothers founded the Lakewood Land Company partially as an investment and partially for a philanthropic purpose. The property along the lake was intended as a major real estate development and the lots were to be sold to executives. The lots of the interior land, on the other hand, were to be sold to the employees of the Gisholt Machine Company and the Fuller and Johnson Company. However, the employees never bought lots, possibly because blue collar workers did not care to build their modest homes within view of their employers mansions.
Hobart Johnson built his residence in the Upper Bluff where he had a cottage. Maurice built his home on the lake, completing it in 1917. Carl Johnson, who was the president of the Gisholt Machine Company, began his home near that of his brother Maurice in the early 1920's, but his wife died before it was completed, and the house remained vacant and boarded up for several years. When Carl Johnson remarried, the house was finished in 1928. This house was designed by Frank Riley, a local architect known for his elegant and expensive designs. It was this house that later became the Governor's Executive Mansion.
The few houses that were built on interior lots varied considerably in architectural style. In this period before World War I, the Prairie style architecture that had been established in Chicago under Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright was used considerably throughout the Madison area, and a few Lakewood houses were of this type, but colonial style houses were also built and became the more common type of Maple Bluff home.
When it became apparent that the Johnsons' employees were not buying lots in Lakewood, they were offered to the general public. At this time, the area was still considered quite isolated from the city of Madison, and in spite of extensive advertisements, very few lots sold through the end of World War I and into the early 1920's.
One important move made by the Johnson brothers was to put their advertising agent, Stanley Hanks, in charge of selling lots in Lakewood. Hanks carried out an extensive advertising campaign to promote Lakewood.
Even before World War I, a bus route had been established, in order to quell the rumor that Lakewood was too far from Madison to make a suitable place of residence.
During this time, Lakewood Boulevard was improved, and Cambridge Road and Kensington Drive constructed.
However, it was not until after World War I that Lakewood really began to develop as a suburb. In part, this was due to an increase in use of the automobile as a mode of private transportation. The two miles between Lakewood and the Capitol Square would have seemed quite short with an auto, and being liberated from the bus schedule made the trip even more attractive.
Despite the extensive advertising campaigns of the late 1920's, lots in Lakewood sold poorly. Although a few houses had been erected, most owners were still paying for their lots when the Depression hit. The Johnsons', who had been paying taxes on all the unsold lots, lowered prices. In the early Depression years, interior lots were selling for $1800 to $2000. By the mid-thirties the prices were even lower, $1000 to $1200, and by the end of the Depression a lot could be purchased for as low as $700.
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The Village of Maple Bluff
In addition to Lakewood, two other plats were promoted at this time, Maple Bluff (McBride's Point and Steensland), and Baywood (then called North Bay) . By the late 1920's, the three plats of Lakewood, Maple Bluff, and North Bay were being marketed together by an organization that called itself the North Shore Development Association.
In the late 1920's, the residents of these plats, together with those of the plat of Fuller's Woods, petitioned the city of Madison for annexation. The city refused on the basis that the area was too rural. Thus, the homeowners decided to incorporate themselves as a village, something that had recently been done by Shorewood Hills on the near west side. In 1930 the residents began to incorporate under the name village of Lakewood Bluff. However, this somewhat infelicitous name was later dropped, and in 1931 the area was officially incorporated as the Village of Maple Bluff. Without aid from the city, the residents of Maple Bluff financed the development of their village roads were paved; a storm sewer system was constructed; sidewalks were laid; and streets lights were installed.
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Lakewood School
Even before incorporation, a resident donated a large tract of land to the village for construction of Lakewood School, with the stipulation that the land could never be used for any purpose other than educational. This school provided the elementary grades, but the pupils attended junior and senior high school at Central High (and later East High) on a tuition basis.
In 1962, the Maple Bluff school district was required by state law to join a district with high school facilities and the County School Board (which had authority in this matter) mandated the attachment of Maple Bluff (for school purposes only) to the Madison Metropolitan School District. At this time, Lakewood School came under the ownership of the Madison school district. With changing demographics, Lakewood School was no longer deemed practical and its use was discontinued. After standing empty for several years, the Lakewood School building was demolished by the Madison school district in 1986. The grounds on which the school stood are now maintained as a village park called Johnson Park.
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Later Developments of the Village of Maple Bluff
The combination of the easing Depression, lowered lot prices, and incorporation as a village caused many buyers to obtain lots in Maple Bluff. In the mid-1930's and early 1940's, Neal Stoddard, a Madison realtor, bought many lots at rock-bottom prices plus most of the LaFollette farm. He built many houses and laid out several streets, including Woodland Circle and the portion of Lakewood Boulevard above the LaFollette farm. The LaFollette house remained in the family.
Most of the lots in the "Lower Bluff" and Fuller's Woods were sold by World War II and by the mid-1960's houses had been built on most of the open areas of the village. Today, the village of Maple Bluff is at about 95% capacity. It exists as a residential community of single-family homes, with no industry and little commercial activity. It is an exceedingly stable community, with a population of 1351 at the 1980 census and with 1352 people at the 1990 census. It has one of the highest assessed valuations in the Madison area.
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Fire Department
From the time of its incorporation in 1931 until 1948, Maple Bluff received fire protection under an agreement with the Madison Fire Department. Fire hazard was low, and the arrangement was considered an advantage to both the village and the city (which was reimbursed for its services).
In 1948, a city alderman mounted a campaign to annex Maple Bluff to the city of Madison. When the village resisted, the alderman convinced the City Council to terminate the fire protection agreement, with the intent of forcing the village to annex.
The village counteracted by quickly establishing a volunteer fire department under the direction and training of Chief Larry Nielson, a retired Chicago Fire Department official. Residents rose to the challenge, volunteered for fire duty, and a well-staffed and well-equipped fire department resulted, a department which still exists.
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The Governor's Executive Mansion
The CarL JohnSon mansion (99 Cambridge Road), completed in 1927-28, was sold to Madison banker Thomas R Hefty in 1932. The state purchased this house from Hefty in 1949 for $47,500 for use as a residence for the Governor. The Executive Mansion has 344 feet of lake frontage and 4 1/2 acres of grounds.
During the administration of Governor Warren P. Knowles in 1965, the State Legislature appropriated funds for major repairs and modernization of the Executive Mansion. At the same time, the Wisconsin Executive Residence Foundation was formed to oversee the remodeling project and to solicit funds for expanding and completing the remodeling and redecorating project. With the Foundation's funds, the house was furnished with proper antiques and appointments, under the supervision of Mrs. Warren P. Knowles, a professional interior decorator. More than just a home for the Governor, the Executive Mansion stands as a symbol of a way of life that is now gradually disappearing. It is one of the major attractions of the Four Lakes area, and is an appealing feature of the village of Maple Bluff.
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References
This article has been based on interviews by the author with early residents conducted in 197S74, on archival material in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and on newspaper articles from the Wisconsin State Journal and Capital Times. Citations can be found in the original publication: The Story of Maple Bluff, published by the village of Maple Bluff in 1974. The article has been updated to 1995 by the editor based in part on information obtained from George Hartung.
The material on Halle Steensland is based on personal communications to the editor from Halberta Steensland and on her article published in Volume VI of the Journal of Historic Madison, pp. 2-8, 1980-81.
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