Walking Damon Woods Here's a 1.3-mile walking route through the Damon Woods Neighborhood: Start at the south entrance to the Wauwatosa Civic Center (City Hall and the Library) and walk east to Wauwatosa Avenue, then south to Hillcrest Avenue. Take that two blocks west to Church Street and turn right. Follow Church Street two blocks north to Rogers Avenue. Take Rogers west to 81st Street and turn right, or north, and then turn left, or west, onto Richmond Court. Take Richmond to 83rd Street and turn right (north) and take that two blocks to Jackson Park Blvd. Turn right (east) and take Jackson Park back to the Civic Center. For starters, you'll have to close your eyes and use your imagination to appreciate the history of what you'll see. The starting point at the Civic Center is in the northeast corner of our neighborhood association's boundaries. The area once was part of pioneer Lowell Damon's 120-acre farmstead. The First Baptist Church, now known as Underwood Memorial Baptist Church, once stood at the point closest to Wauwatosa Avenue and North Avenue. The old church building, a stopover along the Underground Railroad in the years leading to the Civil War, was moved in 1915 to Wauwatosa Cemetery. Frederick Douglas Underwood, son of the church's minister and president of the Erie Railroad from 1901 to 1926, owned the church property and the land now occupied by the civic center until his death in 1942. Underwood's estate was known as "Few Acres." The property later was home to a Roman Catholic order of nuns known as the Our Lady of the Cenacle sisters. They moved out in 1950 and the house, once known as "Holiday House," was torn down about 1955 to make way for the civic center. A painting of the old house is on display behind the library's reference desk. The stretch of Wauwatosa Avenue in our neighborhood is part of a historic district that's dotted with homes representing diverse architectural styles built during nearly every decade of the 20th Century. As you walk south, check out the "Alamo" at 7624 Wauwatosa Ave. It originally was a guest house on the "Few Acres" estate. It was built in 1905 and was one of the first houses in Wisconsin constructed of poured cement. Stop at 2107 Wauwatosa Avenue and see the oldest house in Wauwatosa, known as the Lowell Damon House Museum. The Milwaukee County Historical Society owns it. Take your walk on a Wednesday or Sunday afternoon and you can stop for a tour. Members of the Damon family were among Wauwatosa's first settlers. Oliver Damon traveled from New Hampshire to Wauwatosa in 1841 and bought the land. He built the rear portion of the house in 1844, using timber from the forest that surrounded the property. Oliver's son, Lowell, followed his father to Wauwatosa a few years later and brought with him his wife, Amy Howe Damon, and their four children. Lowell built the front portion of the house, beginning in 1846. Historians point out a Greek Revival influence evident in the wide corner boards, the front entrance framing and sidelights, eyebrow windows under the eaves, heavy simple moldings, and in the gable facing the street. Two doors down is the John Isaac Pelton House, 2027 Wauwatosa Ave. Pelton built it in 1868 after returning from service in the Civil War. With some additions and modifications, the house remained in the Pelton family until its sale in January 2000.  Continue south of Woodland Avenue and you're on part of what used to be the farm owned by Jonathan Warren, Oliver Damon's son-in-law and namesake of nearby Warren Avenue. The poured concrete house at 1945 Wauwatosa Ave. was built in 1915 by Roger Kirchhoff, an architect, for his personal residence. The stucco exterior and red tile roof show a Mediterranean influence. There once was a greenhouse and sunken garden on the southern portion of the property. The house at 1913 Wauwatosa Ave. was built in 1906. It's one of the earliest English Tudors built in Wauwatosa.   Turn right (west) onto Hillcrest Drive, known as "Center Street" until the city adopted the metropolitan address system in the 1930s. Take this two blocks to Church Street, a southbound one-way street, and turn right (north). At 2013 Church, see evidence of Mediterranean influence in the tile roof, chimney detail, arched portico and wrought iron balconies. The house was built in 1928. At 2021 Church, you'll see the storybook "Flagg House," built in 1925. Ernest Flagg, a prominent New York architect, designed it. It features poured concrete floors, broad chimneys, steeply pitched roofs, low side walls, stone facing, modular construction and unusual dormers. Continue northerly on Church to Rogers Avenue and turn left (west). Take Rogers to 81st Street (known as Albert Street until the street renamings in the 1930s) and turn right (north). Take 81st Street for less than a block and turn left (west) onto Richmond Court. It's a quiet two-block long street. To the delight of its residents, there's little reason to drive on this street unless you live here. Once you're in the 8200 block, you're beyond the original boundary of the old Damon farmstead. At the west end of Richmond is 83rd Street, known as Western Avenue until the street renamings of the 1930s. Take that right (north) and continue until Jackson Park Blvd. This wide street is something of a mystery to its residents. No one seems to know the origin of its odd name. It's not a boulevard and there's no Jackson Park anywhere nearby. Jackson Park Boulevard is an especially beautiful street in May when the flowering crabapple trees blossom. Continue easterly, past a stretch of ranch homes built in the 1950s after "Few Acres" was subdivided, and up the steps or a sloping ramp that returns you to the Civic Center Parking lot. There are other neat homes along every one of the 14 streets of Damon Woods. We think this introductory route will give you reason to return as well as an understanding of why we're so happy to call this our neighborhood.
For information about Lowell Damon Woods Neighborhood Association, email info@damonwoods.org