‘C’ is for Melvina Park

A Park for the People to Come Together in Century City Triangle

“C” is for COMMUNITY, CENTURY CITY, CONNECTIONS, CLEAN, COLLABORATION. Melvina Park is a neighborhood park on the edge of past fault lines leaning toward a better future. Melvina Park is shaped by community, history, and urban water management.

Water. The upgraded park will have bioswales along Hopkins designed to manage about 200,000 gallons of stormwater—imagine nine school buses or seven blue whales by volume! This green infrastructure capacity reduces flood risk for the surrounding neighborhood and improves water quality in Lake Michigan. Its trees will also soften the edge along a busy street in a way that could calm traffic.

Community. The Century City Triangle Neighborhood Association, led by Yvonne McCaskill, has rallied around this space for years to bring art and artists to the park; to connect it to Ben Franklin School, Green Tech Station, and other amenities; and to create a safe public space for children, families, and anyone to enjoy. New local businesses locating in the Corridor are adding vitality to Milwaukee’s “Century City.”

History. The land was once a parking lot for A.O. Smith Corporation, which once spanned 135 acres in the 30th Street Corridor. A.O. Smith’s impact was broader than its physical footprint. The Milwaukee company’s globally significant manufacturing facilities mass-produced auto frames to underwrite America’s love affair with the gas-powered automobile (including the “Mechanical Marvel” auto frame factory that once rivetted together 10,000 auto frames a day), manufactured bombs (4.5 million) and aircraft parts that helped the Allies win World War II against Hitler and Nazi Germany, and innovated techniques in arc welding that upgraded industrial practices (facilitating the global construction of gas and oil pipelines), as well as innovating glass-lined tanks and water heaters with socioeconomic ramifications from industrial agriculture and brewing to how residents heat their homes.

There is Miltown pride in the legacy of family-supporting jobs for middle-class African Americans and a desire to reclaim a sense of stability and prosperity. The Century City business park effort across Hopkins Street is a step in the direction of filling A.O. Smith’s footsteps: new businesses have located here including Talgo, Inc. (which manufactures train cars) and Milwaukee’s own Good City Brewing (which makes beer).

Neighbors look forward to the upgraded Melvina Park as a welcoming place where generations can forge new memories together.

Melvina Park Voices