The history of Milwaukee's Washington Park bandshell

Music can bring a community together.

Want proof? Just visit Washington Park’s bandshell on a Wednesday evening in the summer.

You’ll see families and friends spreading out blankets and popping open lawn chairs on the grassy amphitheater.

You’ll smell barbecue, wood-fired pizza and popcorn wafting from local vendors’ food trucks.

And depending on the night, you’ll hear classical, jazz, reggae, opera, folk, rock, punk or a fusion of genres.

The stunning art deco bandshell is formally known as the Emil Blatz Temple of Music, named for the man who came from a brewing dynasty and donated $100,000 for its construction in the city’s largest park.

At its dedication in 1938, a crowd of 40,000 – “a mass of mothers, fathers, maidens, swains and wide-eyed children” – heard a performance from the Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and singer Jessica Dragonette, The Milwaukee Journal reported.

“If this temple of music gives you as much pleasure as it has given me in donating it, I am fully repaid,” Blatz told those who gathered on the lawn.

In the 86 years since, the bandshell has hosted musical legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Lily Pons, often as part of its “Music Under the Stars” program, which ran for 55 years.

Today, Washington Park Wednesdays, a free concert series, carries on the tradition, providing a welcoming space for neighbors of all ages to sing, dance and listen.

See the rest of Milwaukee's 100 objects

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The history of Milwaukee's Washington Park bandshell