Library Mall Cultural Landscape Inventory
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Library Mall Cultural Landscape Inventory December 2005 (Revisions January 2010) Quinn Evans|Architects University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Agricultural Life Sciences Division of Facilities Planning and Management ©2010, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape DEFINITIONS What is a “cultural landscape”? The following document is based on concepts and techniques developed by the National Park Service. The NPS has produced a series of manuals for identifying, describing, and maintaining culturally significant landscapes within the national park system.1 The National Park Service defines a cultural landscape as: a geographic area, including both cultural and natural resources and the wildlife or domestic animals therein[,] associated with a historic event, activity, or person, or [one] that exhibits other cultural or aesthetic values.2 In 1925, geographer Carl Sauer (1889-1975) summarized the process that creates cultural landscapes: “Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape the result.” 3 Similarly, the writer J. B. Jackson (1909-1996) looked upon the landscape as a composition of spaces made or modified by humans “to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence.”4 What is a “cultural landscape inventory”? 5 This cultural landscape inventory for Library Mall is one of eight such studies completed as part of the UW-Madison Cultural Landscape Resource Plan. Each inventory defines the boundaries of a distinct cultural landscape on campus, summarizes its history, describes its current condition, and makes recommendations about its treatment. In addition to these eight cultural landscape inventories, two companion documents address the archaeology and overall history of the campus. This collection of documents is collectively entitled, “Cultural Landscape Report for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.” Within the national park system, a cultural landscape report (CLR) serves as the primary guide to the treatment and use of a cultural landscape. Overleaf: Library Mall, 2004. 1 The most recent and comprehensive of these publications is A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques, published in 1998. Its lead author, Robert R. Page, is director of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Studies, based at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Charleston, Massachusetts: http://www.nps.gov/oclp 2 Robert R. Page, Cathy A. Gilbert, and Susan A. Dolan, A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (Washington, DC: U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships, Park Historic Structures and Cultural Landscapes Program, 1998), 129. 3 Carl Sauer, “The Morphology of Landscape,” in Land and Life: A Selection from the Writings of Carl Ortwin Sauer, ed. John Leighly (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 343. 4 John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 8. 5 The term “cultural landscape inventory” is not to be confused with the NPS Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI), a computerized database of cultural landscapes within the national park system. Library Mall (rev. 2010) Page 2 of 71 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape TABLE OF CONTENTS DEFINITIONS ............................................................................ 2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................... 4 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA................................................ 6 GENERAL INFORMATION .......................................................... 7 KEY TO PLACE NAMES.............................................................. 9 CHRONOLOGY ........................................................................ 10 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE................................................ 12 LANDSCAPE HISTORY ............................................................. 14 EXISTING CONDITIONS ........................................................... 42 ANALYSIS OF INTEGRITY ........................................................ 50 LANDSCAPE TREATMENT........................................................ 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................... 63 ILLUSTRATION CREDITS.......................................................... 70 Prepared by: Brenda W. Williams Researched and written by: Parisa Ford Graphics/Images by: Rebecca L. Marquardt, Megan Bemis, Jason Tish, Xiaojian Yu, and Jonathan Hodkiewicz Project management by: Arnold R. Alanen, Gary Brown, and Sam Calvin Edited by: Daniel F. Einstein, Erika Janik, and Susan O. Haswell This document may be reproduced for educational purposes. All other uses require permission from the UW-Madison Facilities Planning and Management. Contact: 608/263-3000. Library Mall (rev. 2010) Page 3 of 71 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape ILLUSTRATIONS Figures General information...............................................................................................7 1 Location of Library Mall on campus, 2004..............................................................7 2 Cultural landscapes within the Bascom Hill Historic District, 2004 .......................8 3 Boundaries of the Library Mall Historic Landscape, 2004......................................8 Landscape history ................................................................................................14 4 Lower Campus viewed from Science Hall, ca. 1890 .............................................29 5 State Historical Library, ca. 1900...........................................................................29 6 Campus illustration, showing radial paths on Lower Campus, 1907.....................30 7 Sketch by R. G. Thwaites, based on O. C. Simonds’ plan 1901,...........................30 8 State Historical Library, showing drive .................................................................30 9 State Historical Library, 1904, with young trees ...................................................31 10 Detail of campus plan by O. C. Simonds, 1906 .....................................................31 11 Period plan, 1900-1906, showing Simonds’ influence ..........................................32 12 Caricature of Lower Campus, ca. 1938..................................................................32 13 Lower Campus, looking east, during Bag Rush, 1919...........................................33 14 Ice skating on Lower Campus................................................................................33 15 General Plan of the University of Wisconsin, 1908...............................................34 16 Axonometric view of Lower Campus by Peabody, 1926 ......................................34 17 Hagenah Plan for Murray Mall and Lower Campus, 1945....................................35 18 Quonset huts and parking on Lower Campus, ca. 1946-53 ...................................35 19 Memorial Library, after completion of Memorial Library, 1954...........................36 20 Planting plan by G. W. Longenecker, 1956 ...........................................................36 21 Hagenah Memorial Fountain, original design, 1958..............................................37 22 Hagenah Memorial Fountain, as improved, 1959..................................................37 23 Library Mall after implementation of Longenecker plan, 1958.............................38 24 Period plan, 1955-1958, showing Longenecker’s influence, 2004........................38 25 Concept for Murray-Library-Union Place, ca. 1970..............................................39 26 Concept for lake vista, ca. 1970 .............................................................................39 27 Concept for Library Mall, ca. 1970........................................................................40 28 State Street pedestrian mall and clock tower, 1977 ...............................................40 29 Murray Mall concept plan, 1996............................................................................41 Existing conditions...............................................................................................42 30 Existing conditions plan, 2004...............................................................................42 31 Wisconsin Historical Society and Hagenah Fountain, 2004..................................45 32 Library Mall looking south towards Murray Street, 2004 .....................................46 33 Library Mall looking east, 2004.............................................................................46 34 State Street pedestrian mall looking east, 2004......................................................47 Library Mall (rev. 2010) Page 4 of 71 University of Wisconsin-Madison Cultural Landscape 35 State Street pedestrian mall looking northeast .......................................................47 36 State Street pedestrian mall, speakers platform area, 2004....................................48 37 Weekend festivities, State Street pedestrian mall, 2004 ........................................48 38 Trees lining State Street and Library Mall, ca. 1904 .............................................49 Landscape treatment............................................................................................55 39 Recommended treatment zones, 2005....................................................................57