History of Green Bay's Parks

Farlin Park

Creation of the park

In early 1939, real estate agent Norbert Quigley presented an opportunity to establish a park on 8.5 acres for $8,500. This parcel was between Eastman Avenue and Farlin Avenue along Elizabeth Street – that is, just a block east of where Farlin Park would actually be established. We understand, wrote Quigley, that the North Side is badly in need of a park, and the the City of Green Bay had planned on purchasing this property last year. ¹

Twelve years later, with the north side still badly in need of a park, the Plan Commission took the formal step of referring to the Park Board for definite action and recommendation … the request of [Alderman] Dantinne for study of … a playground on the Northeast Side. ² This proposal progressed so that in January of 1952 the city council passed an ordinance designating … for park purposes the bulk of the current Farlin Park. ³ This portion of the property was purchased from Joseph DeGroot at an appraised value of $5,000, ⁴ plus an additional lot from Barbara Denesson DeGroot appraised at $500 which she offered to the city because, she wrote, I cannot get a building permit because my lot is also marked on the official map for park purposes. ⁵

The appraiser noted that the DeGroot property is located immediately east of the property of Green Bay Food Company which is now occupied by large storage tanks and subject to future expansion. ⁶

Pickle juice

The proximity of the industrial facilities likely reduced the value of the DeGroot property to prospective residential buyers. The city dealt with the potential expansion by buying some of the pickle company's property for an additional $3,860 and adding it to the orignal park property. ⁷ The conditions of sale provided

that the City will hold the Green Bay Food Company harmless from any damage due to brine escaping from its equipment, that a fence will be erected by the City between the property purchased and the property of the Green Bay Food Company at a date no later than five years from the time of purchase, and that if the City ever has occasion to sell the property the grantor shall be given first consideration. ⁸

By 1980, however, continuing operations of the pickle plant had severe negative effects on the park. Tests by the State Soil Testing Laboratory found excessive soluable salts in a sample ⁹ and the park director later characterized the problem by saying, Brine leakage from the large vats had made an area of the park completely barren and unusable. ¹⁰ Further testing was performed by a consulting engineer ¹¹ and by 1985 the city (despite the hold-harmless clause) decided to negotiate with Green Bay Food for soil improvement activities. ¹² The company was cautiously open to participating and wrote, We would be interested in making a donation to the city for purposes of this repair. ¹³ Over the next 2 years the city and the company cooperated in completing the project. In the fall of 1987 the park committee was told, After much planning and negotiation, the Company agreed to pay for removal of all sterile soil, installing adequate drainage, filling, seeding and relocation of some facilities which came to over $75,000. ¹⁴

Improvements

The shelter house was requested by the city council in May of 1956 as a location for voting; in response, the park board voted to pursue a combined Comfort Station and Voting Booth to be erected in Park commonly called, Farlin Avenue Park, adding and we request $7700 which we figure will provide for this building. ¹⁵ The council immediately agreed to this amount ¹⁶ — which proved to a very accurate estimate ¹⁷ — and by September the city had listed the final items still needing attention by the contractor (punchlist). ¹⁸

In the summer of 1960 Alderman Dantinne asked that a Tennis Court be installed in Farlin Park and by May of the next year the contractor was given notice to proceed with the construction. ¹⁹

At some point a basketball hoop was installed, but Michael Schoepp was not satisfied. In 1974 he wrote to his alderman saying, My friends and I like to play basketball. Farlin Park has a basketball hoop and backboard but has no hard surface to dribble the ball on. It is difficult with the soft ground and grass. So I am writing to you hoping that a cement slab or black top surface could be installed, not just for me, but for everyone who likes to play basketball. ²⁰ The park department responded the next month, saying Purchase Orders for blacktopping this court has already been written, and the work will be done as soon as weather permits. This is a part of the long range program of hardsurfacing all basketball courts in the municipal park system. ²¹

Some good ideas were greeted with less enthusiasm. When Ald. Dantinne suggested a wading pool in 1964, the department decided that counstruction of any new wading pools should be postponed another year while staff investigated problems with the filtration systems at the existing pools. ²² Twenty years later, Alderman Harold Compton wrote, On behalf of constituents I request that a wading pool for small children be developed in Farlin Park for 1985. That request was tabled. ²³ (Much later, a splashpad was built instead.) ²⁴

Parking had originally been set up at the end of Harold Street, in a lot that extended south from the street past the shelter house (voting booth). ²⁵ While this provided simple access to the shelter house, it also encouraged noise, alcohol, illegal parking, danger to children, trash, entry on private land adjacent to the park and, in 1993, a petition signed by many of the neighbors to the east of the park. ²⁶ In response, the old parking lot was closed and landscaped, the west end of Harold Street was made into a cul-de-sac. ²⁷ (A new parking lot was built off Eastman Avenue when the park was expanded in 2007. ²⁸)

In 1991 the school district floated the idea of using Farlin Park as the site for a new Nicolet School. The park department staff looked at possible configurations, concluding that the most feasible alternative appears to be to locate the school in the southeastern part of the park off of Farlin Avenue conditioned on the purchase of nine homes and lots off of Smith and Farlin Avenue. However, the staff did not favor pursuing the idea, noting that the recommended size for a combined school and park was 25 acres, while Farlin was (at the time) a very small-sized park, 8.3 acres with an irregular shape. In addition, the site was cut off on the west by active railroad tracks and the Green Bay Canning Company pickle vats making it an unappealing location for a school. ²⁹

Expansion

For many years Farlin Park was known for its proximity to the pickle factory, but with the new millenium came changes to the food industry, changes in ownership, and the closure of the eastside plant. On Thursday, September 22, 2005, the City of Green Bay finalized the purchase of the former Dean Foods Pickle Factory located adjacent to Farlin Park. ³⁰ Alderman Chad Fradette, a proponent of the expansion, set up the Farlin Park Revitalization Committee with the goal to decide what type of park you want and how you want it laid out. ³¹

Fradette had raised the expansion idea to the city council the previous February, ³² and city staff had already been examining the possibility for some time. ³³ Some of the negotiating tactics of both sides are visible in the record. In April, for example, Fradette wrote, I would like to start rezoning the pro[pe]rty to park to stop a potential sale. Residents flipped when I said they may sell it for storage units. ³⁴ The city's negotiator replied, Just spoke with Dean Foods. … offered $78,000. … He didn't seem too excited. ³⁵ By September of 2005, the two sides had agreed to a sale for $82,000. ³⁶

There were nearly 300 brine vats on the property in addition to other structures. ³⁷ After these had been removed, the land was graded and the distinctive hillocks constructed; this work began late in 2006 ³⁸ and continued the next summer. ³⁹ The cost of this grading was about $66,000. ⁴⁰ The new parking lot off Eastman Avenue was to be built around the same time the grading is completed. ⁴¹

A dog run was considered for the park as part of the expansion, but it was not approved or built. ⁴² The cost of a basic 1.6 acre dog park area was estimated at about $17,820 – or it could have cost up to $58,740 with all amenities. ⁴³

Notes