Works Progress Administration and Doctors park

Shortly after the park was transferred to what is now Milwaukee County Parks System, Doctors Park benefited from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) depression-era employment project. The bath house on the beach, built in 1939-40, served as an office for lifeguards and provided a place for swimmers to change clothes and shower off sand before heading for home. Besides looking out for those swimming in Lake Michigan, lifeguards sold concessions from the front window.

It still carries a sign in recognition of George A. Tietjen, founder of the Milwaukee County Lifeguard Corps. The lifeguard program ended at about the same time the bath house was shuttered in 2000, after a storm caused significant damage to sewer infrastructure, but not to the building itself.

The Bath House as it looked in the 1940s.

Are you curious about WPA ProjectS?

While there is information in the Wisconsin and Milwaukee County Historical Societies about Milwaukee County Parks, there is not a lot of detail on the WPA projects and CCC camps that happened in the 1930s and 1940s as part of the New Deal. There is a very interesting initiative that is attempting to document New Deal projects in all 50 states. And the beach house in Doctors Park is now listed.

The Living New Deal has its roots in documenting WPA impacts in California, but soon outgrew the original intent as the vast extent of New Deal public works projects became clear. Since 2005, the project became a team effort to inventory, map, and interpret how the New Deal radically changed America.