Winter in Milwaukee
c. mid 20th century
The painting shows a snowy Union Depot overlooking Fourth Ward Park. In 1886 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad (commonly known as the Milwaukee Road) built a new depot at 4th and Everett (just south of West Michigan Avenue) to replace a depot on Reed Street (South 2nd Street) that had been built twenty years earlier. The plans for the Queen Anne style building were made by the famous Milwaukee architect Edward Townsend Mix. Constructed of red pressed brick, the 321 foot long depot faced the city’s Fourth Ward Park (now Zeidler Union Square), thus giving one “an unobstructed view of its architectural beauty”, which included an “electrified” 4-face clock. Milwaukee winters can produce a lot of snowfall and the snowiest winter on record happened right before the Depot was built. Taking place during the winter of 1885-86, Milwaukee had a total of 110 inches, over 9 feet of snow in one winter.
