Milwaukee’s County Stadium: A Controversial Construction

Milwaukee County Stadium truly was a ballpark built with the philosophy “build it and they will come.”

Ground was broken for the ballpark in 1950, well before Milwaukee had a major-league franchise. In fact, original plans called for the Triple-A Milwaukee Brewers to play baseball in the stadium, and for the Green Bay Packers to play some of their games there.

The stadium was the first in the country to be built with public funds without a big-league team occupying the community.

The cost was $5 million, which translates into $44.1 million in 2015 dollars. That’s still pretty cheap when you consider that the County Stadium replacement, Miller Park, cost $392 million to build in 2001.

Osborn Engineering was the architect of the stadium. Hunzinger Construction served as the general contractor. Original dimensions were 320 feet down the left- and right-field lines, 397 to the gaps and 404 to center. The seating capacity was 36,011 when the ballpark opened in 1953. It was expanded five times to a capacity of 53,192.

While the distinction of the first publicly funded stadium might give impression that the community rallied solidly around the construction of the ballpark, the debate over it was long and at times contentious. In fact, the debate, and the persistence of those who backed a stadium, are as much as part of the story, if not more so, than the actual building of County Stadium.

It took 44 years from the time a big-league ballpark was first proposed to the opening of County Stadium in 1953. Charles Whitnall, often looked at as the father of the Milwaukee County Park System, first talked about a major-league park as part of that park system in 1909.1

Whitnall was well ahead of his time. Other community leaders didn’t take up the idea again until 1931. Alderman Charles Schad introduced a resolution on September 1 of that year to build a 50,000-seat stadium on 25 acres at North 60th Street and West McKinley Boulevard. Schad thought Depression Era land prices would allow construction of the facility for $300,000.

But the Depression worked against Schad’s ideas in many ways. Money was scarce, and the city fathers had other priorities.

Schad made another proposal, in 1935: that the stadium be built as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. His cost projections had risen to $700,000. Legal advice was sought to determine if the city or county could use federal funds for a ballpark. The corporation counsel ruled that such funds could be used if the stadium was designated as a war memorial. But by the time the debate ended and the legal opinion was rendered, PWA projects had ended.

Two years later, the County Board did authorize seeking a site for a stadium for no more than $500,000. But what site? Schad’s original proposed site at 60th and McKinley was no longer available.

The proposed sites now included the Story Quarry, Juneau Park, and 15 acres at North Holton Street and Capitol Drive. County Supervisor Frederic Heath became the main advocate for the Story Quarry site, where County Stadium would eventually be built. County Stadium and Story Quarry were about two to three miles west of downtown in the Menomonee Valley (now along the freeway route).

World War II Interruption

A study committee quickly eliminated the Capitol Drive site, claiming it was too far from the population center of the city. Then, for the second time, a national issue — the first was the Depression – put off the search. This time, World War II took precedence. All nonmilitary-related construction was delayed to make the war effort a priority.2 After the war, discussion about a stadium was renewed. Some favored the site of Borchert Field, where the Triple-A Brewers played, but it was within a neighborhood and didn’t have sufficient space for a 50,000-seat big-league ballpark.

County Supervisor Bert Busby introduced a resolution in 1946 calling for construction in the Story Quarry area. Mayor Frank Zeidler expressed concerns whether road construction could be financed and completed to accommodate the stadium site.

“There was a great pressure on where to locate the stadium and how to furnish access roads,” Zeidler recalled in an interview years later. “Different aldermen and supervisors favored different sites.”3

A 63-acre site on state-owned land north of State Fair Park was proposed. State legislators said a stadium on that site could not be used five days before the fair or during the week of the fair. Local officials felt those restrictions would hurt the community’s chances of wooing a team, so they dropped the State Fair site.

Slowly, consensus seemed to build around the Story Quarry site. On January 27, 1948, the County Board voted for the Story site, pending ratification of a city bond issue to widen streets in the area. That issue failed in an April referendum, but in January of 1949 the County Board voted again for the Story site.4

Men of Vision

That set up what often is referred to as a “showdown meeting” on the stadium in July of 1949. After much debate about financing, aldermen approved a resolution by Alderman Edward Hansen to “negotiate for the sale or lease of the Story Parkway stone quarry for a municipal stadium.” What would become the County Stadium site took a big step forward.5

R.G. Lynch wrote a column in the Milwaukee Journal about the “men of vision” who saw a municipal stadium:

“Men of vision, the men who play important roles in the molding of Milwaukee for its future, stood in a row on a bluff overlooking the Menomonee River Valley Thursday afternoon – aldermen, county supervisors, planning engineers and concerned citizens who want to see their city progress. Men and trucks were working on the city dump, which has partly filled the old Story quarry, but the men on the bluff did not see men and trucks. Their eyes were looking to the future – and they saw the steel and green grass of a stadium.”6

The words carried an element of drama, as if Lynch knew this was a historic moment in Milwaukee civic history. But there were still obstacles to overcome before construction could begin.

Details of the land transfer from the city to the county had to be worked out, and took time. During these delays, optimism about the stadium project grew.

William McGovern, an influential member of the county park commission, told members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee that Milwaukee “will have the largest stadium area of any large city in the country.” Already then, the large parking lot, with room for 14,000 automobiles and thousands of tailgaters, was foreseen.

Bernard Gimbel, president of Gimbel Brothers Inc. and chairman of the board of New York’s Madison Square Garden, returned to his hometown with a group of national dignitaries, and said, “I know the stadium is going to make Milwaukee a happier place to live.”

Gimbel added, “Everybody in this community has an enlightened self-interest in the success of this project. I think you are much better off than you know. I believe the stadium will have one of the top facilities for sports and other purposes such as circuses, rodeos, singing festivals and things like that.”7

Meanwhile, McGovern accelerated progress on stadium planning by getting Wisconsin Senator Alexander Wiley to introduce a bill in Congress that leased 22 acres of federally owned land to the county for $1 per year, and to have the county buy another 98 acres. Congress passed the bill in 1949, and President Truman signed it.

Things seemed to be moving along smoothly, but there would be one more major scare.

War Intrudes Again

When the Korean War broke out, it looked as though war might again delay the County Stadium project. A federal agency that oversaw allocation of strategic materials, the National Production Authority, banned construction of any new recreational facilities.

Steel and other materials again were needed for the wartime effort. Local officials argued that the order did not include projects under way, and that the planning and groundbreaking for the stadium project constituted the beginning of construction. Federal officials countered by saying that a groundbreaking did not constitute a project that was “under way.”

McGovern again went to work. He went to Washington and talked to everybody from NPA officials to congressmen. The Washington officials did not make any promises, but did agree to have their people inspect the project. The NPA ruled that to stop the project would cause “unusual hardship” in the community. However, the NPA also said it could not guarantee steel for the project.8

Local officials changed their deadline of a 1952 completion of the stadium to 1953. It was clear that materials would not be available soon enough, or in enough supply.

During this time, a labor union strike also broke out. Once materials were obtained, however, the stadium workers returned to the job. Excavation for the stadium started on October 19, 1950. The project was declared a memorial to World War II veterans, which might have helped McGovern in his arguments with Washington officials.9

Once the playing field was laid out, work on the walls, stands, and eventually the upper deck progressed in coming months. The seats in the grandstands and upper decks originally were bench seats and later changed to individual seats.

Watching the stadium go up became quite a tourist attraction. Among those watching was a high-school student named Allan “Bud” Selig, who eventually would lead an effort to bring baseball back to Milwaukee, serve as the team’s principal owner, and be elected commissioner of baseball.

“When I talk about County Stadium. I get very emotional,” Selig said in the introduction of Down in the Valley: The History of Milwaukee County Stadium. “I remember the thrill I got standing up on Story Parkway and watching it being built, I was in high school then, and after years of going to Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park and Yankee Stadium, my hometown was going to be major league.”10

Much attention was paid to the three construction workers killed when a crane fell during work on Miller Park. Many people may not know that three workers were also killed during work on County Stadium.

A worker died when a girder fell on him in 1950. Two workers were riding in a hoisting bucket when it fell 90 feet to the ground in 1952.11

Shortly before the 1953 season was scheduled to start, Lou Perini got permission from National League owners to move the Boston Braves to Milwaukee. Workers had to hustle to get seating in place.

On April 9, 1953, Fred Parker, 91, an artillery veteran of two wars – the Spanish-American War and World War I – was the first fan to enter the County Stadium gates when the Milwaukee Braves were scheduled to host the Boston Red Sox in an exhibition game. With 9,596 fans on hand, rain in the second inning forced the cancellation of Milwaukee’s first modern major-league contest. But the doors had opened, as workers continued to put on finishing touches.12

As thousands came to the ballpark for baseball, and as the Packers played there, and as other events, such as the Ice Capades and Harlem Globetrotters, were held there, it became evident that the capacity had to be expanded and other changes had to be made to the stadium.

On October 6, 1953, the County Board approved construction of additional permanent seating, increasing the capacity to 43,394 for the 1954 baseball season. (Permanent extension to the right-field lower grandstand was built, extending around the foul pole to Section 29. The grandstand extended around the foul pole into foul territory down the right field line. Permanent upper- and lower-deck seats were built down the left-field line, extending out to the grandstand section.)13

The stadium originally had wire fences with open areas in center field. After complaints from several major-league players, including Jackie Robinson, spruce and fir trees were planted beyond the center-field fence to provide a better background for batters. A row of 15 trees that would grow to over 20 feet tall was transplanted from three county parks, Whitnall, Brown Deer, and Curry. This area became known as “Perini’s Woods.”

More changes were made to the stadium over the years. The wire outfield walls were replaced, the press box was expanded, a picnic area was developed in the left-field corner, and other additions made. A couple of innovations never really panned out. A motorized roller intended to spread the tarp on the field was added in 1957, failed miserably, and was removed. An escalator was installed to take fans to the upper deck, but frequently malfunctioned.

After the Braves moved to Atlanta, the stadium sat relatively empty. It still hosted some Packers games and occasional events like concerts and religious revival meetings among others.

When the Brewers came to Milwaukee, the stadium needed some updates to host major-league baseball again. A new scoreboard was added, and the press box and other areas of the park were expanded and updated.

A chalet was installed in center field to house Bernie Brewer, the team mascot. Bernie slid down a chute into a beer mug every time a Brewer hit a home run. Later, a large audio speaker was installed in dead center.

In the last few years of the stadium, little new construction was done, but maintenance became more frequent as the ballpark showed its age. What Bob Uecker termed “the old friend” had to stay open an additional season because of delays after the crane accident at Miller Park.

County Stadium closed on September 28, 2000, and was demolished in February 2001.

GREGG HOFFMANN is a semiretired veteran journalist and the author of Down in the Valley: The History of Milwaukee County Stadium. The book was released when the stadium closed and Miller Park opened. Hoffmann has covered sports, politics, business, and other beats for more than 40 years. He also is a senior lecturer emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has written five other books, ranging in topics from media literacy to The Making of Miller Park. He now lives with his wife, Pauline, in The Driftless Area of Wisconsin and publishes websites about that area and other topics.

 

Notes

1 Gregg Hoffmann, Down in the Valley: The History of Milwaukee County Stadium (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2000), 19.

2 Hoffmann, 19.

3 Author’s interview with Frank Zeidler in 1998.

4 Hoffmann, 21.

5 Timeline maintained by Mario Ziino.

6 R.G. Lynch, Milwaukee Journal, July, 1949.

7 Hoffmann, 23.

8 Hoffmann, 24.

9 Timeline maintained by Mario Ziino.

10 Author’s interview with Bud Selig in 1999.

11 Timeline maintained by Mario Ziino.

12 Timeline maintained by Mario Ziino.

13 Timeline maintained by Mario Ziino.