Buried geography: a river ran under it

At one time Deer Creek flowed through the Bay View neighborhood. Unfortunately, due to frequent flooding of areas bordering the creek bed, city officials decided in the 1890s to divert the creek into the city sewage system. Presently, all that is left of Deer Creek is a short stretch that meanders through the grounds of the St. Francis Seminary, located on South Lake Drive.

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Meandering Stream

“Starting from a spring near the intersection of today’s South Kinnickinnic Avenue and East Norwich Street, Deer Creek wound its way through the present grounds of the St. Francis Seminary and cut across South Illinois Avenue to the intersection of South Delaware and Oklahoma Avenues,” wrote historian Bernhard Korn in his book The Story of Bay View.

The creek continued north at this point, following South Delaware Avenue. When the creek reached East Estes Street, it detoured west a short distance, connecting with South Ellen Street. According to Arthur Hickman, in his memoir, Bay View As I Remember It, “this little detour was known as the ‘Devil’s Elbow.’” Hickman claimed that the creek continued running north parallel to Ellen Street, actually “about 100 feet west of it.” When the creek reached South Pryor Avenue, it went under a wooden bridge and emptied into a marshy area. (Later, this marshy area would be the location of Lewis Playfield.)

“From here the course of the creek has always been unclear to us,” claimed Hickman. Nevertheless, the creek “reappeared” on the other side of the railroad tracks and formed Deer Creek Pond, a sizeable body of water. According to Hickman, and verified by archival maps, the creek drained into Lake Michigan via a tunnel under the railroad tracks just south of East Lincoln Avenue.

Flooding Problems

Deer Creek created major flooding problems for neighborhood residents. The creek was not only fed by the natural spring but also was a drainage route for all the land between South Superior Street and South Kinnickinnic Avenue. This combination of spring water and drainage water caused this intermittent flooding.

As far back as 1879, there had been talk about draining the creek, but it wasn’t until the 1890s that the city of Milwaukee decided to construct sewers to divert it.

In 1893, the Milwaukee Common Council authorized construction of “an outlet sewer alongside of Deer Creek, from the east line of the right-of-way of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. to Lake Michigan…”

The 1893 annual report for the Milwaukee Board of Public Works reports, “Two large trunk sewers will receive the outflow, one emptying into Lake Michigan at the mouth of Deer Creek [at Lincoln Avenue], and the other at St. Paul Avenue [now Rusk Avenue].”

Both sewer outlets were completed the following year at a cost of $36,301.83. (In the 1930s, however, in order to stop the flow of wastewater into the lake, these two sewer outlets were bulkheaded and the wastewater was directed into new sewer lines that traveled north to Jones Island.

Unfortunately, these two sewer outlets did not solve all the flooding problems and more storm sewers and catch basins were constructed over the years.

In 1902, a 84-inch combined sewer was built along South Delaware Avenue, and according to the 1902 annual report of Milwaukee Board of Public Works, 90 feet of six-inch clay sewer pipe was laid at the southwest corner of Rusk and Kinnickinnic Avenues to help drain the pond.

Another area targeted was the point where Deer Creek left the seminary grounds. According to plat maps provided by Tony Kotecki, a civil engineer with the Milwaukee Department of Public Works, a 60-inch combined sewer (sanitary and stormwater combined) was installed in 1918 near the present intersection of South Illinois, East Rhode Island, and East Fernwood Avenues. From this point, sewer pipes directed the flow of water west on Fernwood Avenue and then north along South Indiana Avenue to East Oklahoma and South Delaware Avenues.

Flooding continued to plague South Delaware Avenue residents into the 1920s. “In 1921, due to a combination of heavy rains and clogged sewers, Delaware Avenue became an elongated lake,” claimed Hickman. “The only access to the front door of Brandt’s market, near the Trowbridge Street School, was by boat.” As a result, recalled Hickman, a larger intercepting sewer was built under the full length of Delaware Avenue, and no more flooding occurred.

Altered Landscape

Ultimately the creek disappeared from the landscape. The old creek bed along South Delaware Avenue was paved over with concrete, and the part of the former Deer Creek Pond became the site of the Beulah Brinton Community Center and playground.

Yet, the creek has left its legacy in Bay View.

According to the book, Bay View Neighborhood Historic Resource Survey, “employees of the [Brinton] center report unusual problems with dampness rising from the foundation, which is attributed to the creek bed below.”

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