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County begins to unveil treasures of a well-hidden park

Anita Weier  —  10/15/2008 12:52 pm

You've probably driven by the nondescript government building high on a hill above Northport Drive many times, not giving it a second thought.

But the institutional appearance of the structure now housing the Dane County Department of Human Services disguises a treasure trove of history and nature.

In recent years, the area surrounding the office building has been designated a conservation area and a county park. Standing in front of the headquarters, visitors see an expansive view of Lake Mendota and much of Madison. An urban forest at the back of the building features huge oak trees as well as butternut and hickory trees, and native plants that a local group has protected and planted.

And the building at 1202 Northport Drive, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is rich in history. From 1930 to 1966 the building served as the county tuberculosis sanatorium. Prior to the development of drugs to fight the dreaded lung disease, patients were brought here to be removed from the general populace and treated mainly with fresh air.

The Lake View Sanatorium was a community unto itself, with a nurses dormitory, a garden, beehives and even a pig barn. Water was guided through stone spillways down the hill, dropping sometimes in little waterfalls, finally reaching a small lake -- descriptively named "Sputum Lake" -- near the road. The water features, including a still-standing though now unused fountain in front of the building, were meant to be therapeutic.

Patients often sat or slept on the open front porches (now enclosed), watching the world go by and getting as much fresh air as possible. They walked on trails in the woods apparently lined with coal slag after it was burned for heat.

This beautiful historic site was almost lost to development in the mid-1980s, a fate blocked by neighborhood groups and the Dane County Board of Supervisors.

Now a master planning process for Lake View Hill County Park is under way, as was prescribed by the 2006-11 Dane County Parks and Open Space Plan. The county has hired a consultant and held public input meetings to gather feedback on future uses for the site. Another public meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1625 Northport Drive.

Sara Kwitek, Dane County acquisition and planning specialist, said Lake View Hill is one of the county's smallest and most urban parks.

"There is an amazing view of Lake Mendota from the front of the building," Kwitek said. "We are trying to bring that forward and highlight it, and make it more visible."

It was former Dane County Executive Jonathan Barry who explored the idea of selling the property on the hill. A company got as far as platting a subdivision before neighbors formed a group to save the park from development, rallying under the banner "Save the Hill."

"The neighbors got together and hundreds of people came out at a hearing to convince the county that this land was valued as open space," recalls Nelson Eisman, chair of the Friends of Lake View Hill Park.

Eisman, who ran for governor of Wisconsin in 2006 as the Green Party candidate, served on the Dane County Board in the 1990s, and like subsequent supervisors helped protect Lake View Hill. It was eventually designated as green space, and then became a county park and conservancy.

"Now it is zoned by the city as a conservancy as well," Eisman said. "It is a protected public open-space park resource."

People now use Lake View Hill mainly for walking in a relaxing environment through the woods. Some walk dogs, but there are varied opinions on whether dogs should be allowed in the park or whether they should be restricted to certain areas.

A public information meeting and smaller meetings with county employees and the Lake View Neighborhood Association have already been conducted to gain input for the park master plan.

"We have been hearing stories and getting different ideas to consider for the future," Kwitek said. "We hired Ken Saiki Design to develop a plan. They took comments and came up with the three different concept plans."

One -- a cultural park concept -- is focused on making historic aspects of the site a main theme, with interpretive signage. Some citizens have suggested this idea could include turning the former nurses dormitory, now used for storage, into a museum about the sanatorium.

"School kids could come to the museum and then take a walking tour," Eisman said.

But Lynn Green, director of Dane County Human Services, doubts the usability of the nurses dorm, which is part of the headquarters grounds, not the park.

"We are considering what should be done with that building -- if there is a use or whether it should be demolished," Green said. "The county would have to invest in major repairs, including a leaking roof."

Green said the structure is not up to code for human occupancy and is not accessible to wheelchairs. There also has been some vandalism, and a few windows are boarded up or covered with plastic.

An improved trail with signage describing remnants from the sanatorium -- including the water features, pig barn foundation and even a former skating rink used by the superintendent's children and neighborhood youths -- might be more feasible.

A historical survey of the property for the park master plan identified many of these items. Remains of the stone spillways that guided water down the hill, as well as the path of the stream that went into the lake, are still visible. Likewise, a foundation and some small bones are evidence of the hog barn where food was raised for patients.

The second option for Lake View Hill is a conservancy park that would focus on the restoration work that has been done by the Friends of Lake View Hill to remove invasive plant species. Another possibility is planting the mowed front lawn of the office building with prairie plants. No additional trails would be built in the woods, and man-made remnants such as the hog barn foundation and concrete foundations for waterfalls would be removed.

The Friends group has been working since 1999 on restoring the upland oak savanna behind the building.

"The restoration is coming along nicely," Eisman said. "Applied Ecological Services of Brodhead got the county contract to train community people like myself to understand the native species and weed out stuff that doesn't belong here, like honeysuckle, buckthorn and garlic mustard. We have collected seeds and propagated plants so it looks more like it did in pre-settlement time."

The discovery of a threatened plant known as the yellow giant hyssop excites Friends members such as Janet Battista, who serves on the board with Eisman. "We're opening the forest canopy to restore the savanna, and later we want to restore an oak woodland," she said. "Some wonderful native plants are coming back."

The third option being considered -- an urban park -- would be a mixed-use park featuring picnic areas, an expanded trail system and a mowed lawn for seating for such events as Rhythm and Booms, which is held annually across the street in Warner Park.

Kwitek said there has been talk of adding interpretive notes to the expanded trail system and employing some stormwater management tools to limit trail erosion. Neighborhood garden plots are also a possibility.

Planners are also looking at ways to increase access to the park with a connection across Northport Drive to Warner Park.

"One possibility is to have a viewing area on the rooftop of the building," Kwitek said.

Parking could become an issue if the park is widely used.

"We are not specifically dealing with parking in our plan," Kwitek said. Currently, she said, parking is not a problem because visitors usually park along the driveway leading to the building and often visit after office hours or on weekends, when parking is available.

"If the timing is right and staff are out on appointments, the parking works," Green said. "Otherwise, parking is a limitation during work days."

Those who can't make Wednesday's public meeting on the park's master plan can submit comments to Rebecca Flood at Ken Saiki Design, 303 S. Paterson St., Suite 1, Madison, WI 53703, or by e-mail to rflood@ksd-la.com.

A final plan is scheduled to be presented at another public meeting on Nov. 18 at the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, also at 7 p.m.

The Parks Commission will ultimately vote on the master plan and then make a recommendation to the Dane County Board.

The Friends of Lake View Hill have so far not taken a position on the alternatives.

"We like pieces of each of the options," Battista said.

"We don't want camping or ball diamonds," Nelson added. "We do want the hill to be used in winter for sledding and in summer for watching fireworks. Ideally there would be some picnicking, but not gazebos and shelters -- just a place where people could put a blanket on the hill and have a picnic and fly a kite."

Anita Weier  —  10/15/2008 12:52 pm