(Part III of III)

By John Dillon

The early to mid-1930’s was an active time along the Bay View shoreline.  The population of Milwaukee was already over 575,000 people, which is about 100 years after Elijah Estes first settled in the area.  The new (current) bath house was built and completed and the old one torn down.  South Shore Yacht Club was about ready to build their current clubhouse.  However, the Great Depression which started in 1929 was still affecting the economy and would continue until about 1939.  Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, so the US involvement in WWII was on the horizon.

This chart is dated March 1, 1936.  The steel mill has now been closed for 6 years and is currently abandoned.  The shore line has been completely filled in from the Russell Ave. intake to the current location of the launching ramps in South Shore Park.  “Aves Feces” island is still intact just off the shoreline where the yacht club will be built.  And the new South Shore Park Pavilion is now complete and the old structure is staged for demolition.  The breakwater still does not have a gap to the south for boats to exit/enter into Lake Michigan.

The chart is dated October 1936, only 8 months after the previous chart.  You’ll note the South Shore Yacht Club building shows up on the chart.  In addition, “Aves Feces” island has been removed from in front of the club.  The boulders that were removed were used to make the gap to the south which is now also in place.

Here is the ground breaking taking place in April of 1936 for the building of the SSYC clubhouse.  Most of the work in building the clubhouse was done by yacht club members as they could not afford hiring outside contractors to do the work. 

Here is the SSYC clubhouse just after completion.  Many additions and modification have taken place over the years since then.  I believe that the flag pole to the right just outside this photo was one of the old masts from the Lily E.

This photo is dated July 8, 1936, and shows a Gillen barge removing “Aves Feces” island from in front of the yacht club.  This is the stone that was relocated to the south of SSYC to form the gap in the breakwater that you now see from shore.

This is a photo from Greg Schultz showing the shutdown steel mill in 1937.  In 1938 work began to dismantle the steel mill.  While the city of Milwaukee wanted to have a road built along the shoreline, just like Lincoln Memorial Drive on the north side of the harbor entrance, the steel mill was unwilling to give up their riparian rights to the water front, thus ending any chance of this road being built.

So, by the late 1920’s, plans were already being made for the new bath house in the park.  With the depression in full force, it looked like construction was delayed until 1933.

Here is a photo during this time frame, showing both the bath houses still in place.

And this is a chart from 1944 showing the steel mill has been completely dismantled.  The only thing left were the railroad tracks that serviced the mill.  Steel rip-rap was also used to extend the north side of the Russell Ave. Intake.  The Second World War was still raging at this time and would not end until 1945. 

Photo at top of page

Prior to the building of SSYC’s permanent structure, SSYC has a couple of temporary clubhouses they used.  The top left club house was built on an old barge and moored just to the north of where the current launching ramps are located.  A strong Nor’easter damaged this clubhouse beyond repair in October of 1929, the same month as when the stock market crashed.  The bottom left photo was another temporary SSYC clubhouse that was owned by the steel mill.  This was located around the intersection of S. Shore Drive and Russell Ave, across the street from the Bay View Terrace.  The members then built the structure in the lower right which was the last building at the bottom of the hill on Nock St.  Built in 1930 this clubhouse was used until the new clubhouse was built in 1936.

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John Dillon grew up just up the hill from the South Shore Yacht Club (SSYC) on S. Shore Dr. and Iron Street.  At the age of 10 he joined the SSYC Junior program, took sailing lessons there and then began competitive sailboat racing which he did for the next 50 years.  His interest in sailing and history started with artifacts around the house from the Rosa Belle, his great-grandfather’s schooner that ran lumber and other goods on Lake Michigan.  He is now retired and living on the Caribbean Island of Bequia teaching sailing to the local youth on the island.

Photos provided by John Dillon