Boerner Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens, a highlight of Milwaukee County’s nationally-recognized Park system, are a product of Depression-era labor. Charles Whitnall, a long-time member of the County Park Commission, pushed for the acquisition of park land in the 1920s. He envisioned such space as an escape from urban life.[1] The gardens were built in the park named for Whitnall and designed by landscape architect Alfred Boerner.[2] Once the New Deal was launched, the Commission quickly put its long-term plans for park development into action and secured federal relief funds.[3] Workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration constructed the five original gardens.[4] Two years after Boerner’s death in 1955, the county board renamed the Gardens in his honor.[5]