Charles Whitnall

Charles B. Whitnall, planner and conservationist, is considered the main inspiration for Milwaukee County’s system of public parks and also an influential advocate of regional planning in early twentieth century Milwaukee.

Whitnall was born in 1859, four miles north of downtown, in present day Riverwest. Charles’s father, Frank Whitnall, was an English immigrant and gardener who operated a prominent retail seed and floral business, with greenhouses on the family property along the banks of the Milwaukee River and a busy downtown storefront location. Whitnall inherited his father’s business and was instrumental in the creation of the Florist Telegraph Delivery System, a service that eventually enabled the delivery of flowers over great distances.

Whitnall joined Milwaukee’s nascent Social Democratic party in the 1890s and was elected city treasurer as part of the Socialist sweep into city politics in 1910. Whitnall also served as a member of the Milwaukee County Park Commission from its inception in 1907 to 1941, and on the city of Milwaukee’s Board of Public Land Commissioners from 1907 to 1945. In these positions, he became a strong advocate for Garden City planning, which emphasized residential decentralization; clustered, village-like communities with close access to greenspace; and a rejection of the traditional urban grid pattern of streets. During the 1900s and 1910s, Whitnall published a series of writings that mused on the built environment and directly linked socialist ideas with city planning.[1]

In 1923, Whitnall published plans for a countywide system of parks and parkways that served as the foundation for the Milwaukee County Park System. Whitnall’s 1923 park plans were especially notable for their emphasis on combining together wetland protection, streambank restoration, flood control, and public recreation. He also imagined that new communities filled with residents from all walks of life would develop along and near the county’s new parks, thus furthering his Garden City-inspired planning ambitions. Whitnall also foresaw the growing importance of the automobile. He included eighty-four miles of “parkways” that ran along the natural contours of the landscape, an early example of making an accommodation to the automobile while maintaining conservation. Whitnall’s park plans were adopted by Milwaukee County officials with remarkably little revision, and land acquisition gradually moved ahead throughout the 1920s and 1930s.[2]

Whitnall’s influence also extended through his family. His son, Gordon, also became an influential planner, moving to Los Angeles and becoming a founding member of the Los Angeles City Planning Association in 1913; he was the Director of Planning for the city of Los Angeles from 1920 to 1930. Charles Whitnall died in 1949, at age 89. Whitnall Park and Whitnall Avenues are both named after him, and the original Whitnall family home remains at 1208 E. Locust Street.