More Pike Creek Infrastructure Photos!
This is one of the drainage canals feeding the retention bason near Shopko.
This may or may not be part of the historic Pike Creek watershed. Historic maps don't show a direct connection. However, a 1958 topographic map shows a stream in this area that runs to near where a 1931 plat map shows a southern branch of Pike Creek that no longer exists.
History has its mysteries.
More infrastructure
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This is a great example of the way land use changes so drastically through time, and the constructed environment is truly a palimpsest of superseded functions that may or may not have been.
Through the end of the 19th century, this was part of what look to be farm fields judging by their size and location on old plats of the area. After that, it was part of an estate called "Bonnie Hame", owned by local elite businessman Edward Bain. His country house was on the property, which is now in the heart of the city! Later, a 1931 plat map shows a stream running through this site, which was at that labeled "City of Kenosha School Site," with "Troop E Armory" just to the north. The stream was not noted on older maps, but whether or not such features were mapped seems to have been up to the cartographer and was fairly subjective.
I don't think a school was actually built here, though Wilson elementary exists a short block to the west. I believe (though I haven't confirmed it) that this was instead used as a parking lot for the nearby AMC motors plant, which later became the Chrysler Engine Plant, and which is now abandoned and bulldozed. (The site of the armory is now Hobbs Park.)
We went looking for traces of an old streambed, but had no luck. Its definitely on my list of places to look for storm sewers though, once I get ahold of a public works map. It would have been the south branch of Pike Creek that flowed north into the golf course. It's path runs right through the residential development to the east.
Edited to Add:
A friend on Facebook just pointed out to me that this parcel is the site of Bonnie Hame. Bonnie Hame was an estate owned by local businessman and bigwig Edward Bain of the Bain Wagon Company. I think it was basically his country house that was on the property, which is now well-enveloped by the city. I had heard of the estate before in passing references in the archives, but I didn't know where it was.
So there's another former purpose to that parcel. Fascinating.
Kenosha news says that "Part of the Nash Motors plant, including the engineering department and the “paint and repair” department, were housed on the old farmland." So this was not just a parking lot; it was also a factory!
It's so weird to looki at that piece of land and imagine it as being out in a bucolic countryside with a creek flowing through it, probably some willow trees, farmland, and a big country manor. Now it's flat and largely featureless, with old light poles and concrete strips randomly scattered around a weedy, overgrown lot. It just boggles my mind.
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Retention basins can be kind of pretty.
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And also pretty ugly.
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And sometimes just really interesting. At least, if you're into infrastructure.
This may or may not be part of the historic Pike Creek watershed. Historic maps don't show a direct connection. However, a 1958 topographic map shows a stream in this area that runs to near where a 1931 plat map shows a southern branch of Pike Creek that no longer exists.
History has its mysteries.
More infrastructure
----------------
This is a great example of the way land use changes so drastically through time, and the constructed environment is truly a palimpsest of superseded functions that may or may not have been.
Through the end of the 19th century, this was part of what look to be farm fields judging by their size and location on old plats of the area. After that, it was part of an estate called "Bonnie Hame", owned by local elite businessman Edward Bain. His country house was on the property, which is now in the heart of the city! Later, a 1931 plat map shows a stream running through this site, which was at that labeled "City of Kenosha School Site," with "Troop E Armory" just to the north. The stream was not noted on older maps, but whether or not such features were mapped seems to have been up to the cartographer and was fairly subjective.
I don't think a school was actually built here, though Wilson elementary exists a short block to the west. I believe (though I haven't confirmed it) that this was instead used as a parking lot for the nearby AMC motors plant, which later became the Chrysler Engine Plant, and which is now abandoned and bulldozed. (The site of the armory is now Hobbs Park.)
We went looking for traces of an old streambed, but had no luck. Its definitely on my list of places to look for storm sewers though, once I get ahold of a public works map. It would have been the south branch of Pike Creek that flowed north into the golf course. It's path runs right through the residential development to the east.
Edited to Add:
A friend on Facebook just pointed out to me that this parcel is the site of Bonnie Hame. Bonnie Hame was an estate owned by local businessman and bigwig Edward Bain of the Bain Wagon Company. I think it was basically his country house that was on the property, which is now well-enveloped by the city. I had heard of the estate before in passing references in the archives, but I didn't know where it was.
So there's another former purpose to that parcel. Fascinating.
Kenosha news says that "Part of the Nash Motors plant, including the engineering department and the “paint and repair” department, were housed on the old farmland." So this was not just a parking lot; it was also a factory!
It's so weird to looki at that piece of land and imagine it as being out in a bucolic countryside with a creek flowing through it, probably some willow trees, farmland, and a big country manor. Now it's flat and largely featureless, with old light poles and concrete strips randomly scattered around a weedy, overgrown lot. It just boggles my mind.
--------
Retention basins can be kind of pretty.
--------
And also pretty ugly.
--------
And sometimes just really interesting. At least, if you're into infrastructure.