Brittingham Park Boathouse

The Brittingham Boathouse is a historic boathouse located on North Shore Drive along a bay of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. Built in 1909-10, it is the city's oldest extant public park building. The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association, an association of civic leaders which established many of Madison's first parks, commissioned the boathouse as a public facility for the surrounding working-class neighborhood. Architect John Nolen, who was responsible for much of Madison's civic architecture, and Milwaukee architecture firm Ferry and Clas collaborated on the building's design. The design is mainly utilitarian; its ornamental features include overhanging eaves with exposed rafters and a pointed arch entrance. The boathouse is named for Thomas Brittingham, a Madison lumberman who supplied $7,500 for its construction. The boathouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1982. It was significantly rehabilitated in 2005 through a joint effort by the City of Madison, the Madison Parks Foundation, and the Camp Randall Rowing Club.