Great Place on a Great Lake

I believe that preserving environments such as Lake Park are just as valid and important as preserving buildings such as Mount Vernon. Lake Park was designed by the famous architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York City. This fact alone gives the environment merit to be a historical environment. The designed landscape of the park was utilized in many different ways by the people who lived in the area, making Lake Park a place that was beneficial and enjoyable to all, adding to its weight in Milwaukee's history. Lake Park also houses the old North Point Lighthouse, another historical landmark, as well as an ancient Indian burial mound. Famous history aside, the park has also aided in the prevention of erosion on Milwaukee's Lakefront; the park used to extend all the way to the water, but due to erosion, Lincoln Memorial Drive was added, in addition to the green spaces on either side of the drive.

The images I chose for this topic depict what I believe to be key positive points in favor of maintaining Lake Park as a historical landscape. The first image shown is the North Point Lighthouse, which is a part of our city's maritime history. From the photograph, you can see the addition on the bottom half of the lighthouse, which was added earlier in the 20th century. The house next to the light house, the keeper's quarters, have also been restored. The lighthouse offers tours on the weekends and is now the site of many Milwaukee weddings. The second image, to the right of the lighthouse, depicts the actual lens used in the lighthouse. The keeper would have to work with the lens every four hours, all night, every night. The fact that the lens is on display adds to the rich history of its surrounding environment. The third image shown above is of one of the bridges in the park. This bridge has been recently restored, and joins two edges of the ravine below. The park has multiple bridges like this one, and the fact that after so may years there are groups that care enough about the landscape and the community to properly restore these bridges says a lot. This group of citizens is called the Lake Park Friends. They work to maintain the park and its uses for the community. I addition to restoring the bridges and maintaining recreational areas within the park, they also have worked with specialists to properly maintain and utilize the natural landscape and its resources for the future benefit of the park.

A place with such a rich history that, to this day, continues to positively impact its community, is well worth the effort to maintain and restore as necessary. I do not see any negatives coming from lake park being a historical landscape. The only issue I would raise is that, like Central park in New York City, the park itself might further benefit from closing certain areas during certain times of the year in order to regrow indigenous flora and fauna.