Riverside Park (La Crosse)

The La Crosse Convention and Visitors Bureau building is located at the north end of the park. It was originally built in 1924 as a fish control lab.[5] The building was home to the Riverside Museum from 1990 until it moved in February 2020. The building and northern area of the park are slated to be redeveloped in the near future.[11]

The bandshell was originally designed by Otto A. Merman. Its construction was funded by private donations and it was erected by Theodore Molzahn. The cornerstone was ceremonially laid on June 1, 1930. It was completed later that same year and the structure was dedicated on September 14, 1930. The bandshell was dedicated in memory of Wendell B. Anderson, a former mayor of the city who had founded its park system. The original cement construction was built in 1930s art deco inspired style. The structure had been renovated in 1962 and 1978 and was first expanded in 1986, when wings of concrete were added on either side of the stage.[12] A renovation which began in 2019 largely overhauled the structure. A design by the architect Roald Gundersen reconstructed the stage and seating area. Most notably, it added a monumental wooden canopy which was built using trees harvested from the area and designed to reference the city's historical logging industry.[13][14]

At the northern tip of the park, there is a dock and ticket booth for the La Crosse Queen, a paddleboat which offers tours of the river. The boat is a replica of the steam powered river boats that travelled along the Mississippi in the early 1900s. According to one member of the La Crosse County Historical Society, the park itself was built on top of three of such steamboats and a barge which were covered up with sediment dredged out of the main channel.[15]

The park is home to several sculptures, the most monumental of which is a large steel eagle on top of a tree trunk. This statue was created by Elmer Petersen and erected in 1986 at the entrance of the park.[16][5] Until 2020, the park was also home to a Statue of Hiawatha, which stood at the park's northern end. It was removed after decades of controversy over whether the statue was culturally insensitive and offensive.[17]

A cannon, cast in Seville, Spain in 1787, is located near the park's bandshell. It stood in Havana Harbor for over 100 years before being captured by US troops during the Cuban War of Independence. All of the cannons in the harbor were confiscated by the United States government as war prizes, to be distributed around the country. After lobbying from by congressman John J. Esch, two of these cannons were designated for the State of Wisconsin, one of which was to be placed in his constituency of La Crosse. In 1900, it was placed outside the City Hall, which was then on 3rd and State Street. The 4,375-pound cannon was moved to its current location in the park in 1918.[18] The plaque next to it reads: “In memorial U.S.S. Maine. Destroyed in Havana Harbor, February 1898.” The plaque itself was made from metal recovered from the USS Maine. During WWII, petitions were made by the community to recycle the cannon and use the metal for war supplies. The type of metal that it is made of, however, would not have been particularly useful and the cannon remained.[19]

The park's original fountain was donated to the city by Jake Hoeschler in 1981.[5] In 2003, the family funded the installation of a new fountain in its place. The new fountain, designed by Kurt Schroeder, represented the seven rivers which converge in the region. Its three largest geysers represent the Mississippi, La Crosse, and Black Rivers, while the four smaller geysers correspond to smaller rivers in the region. The fountain was turned off in 2016 due to weather-related deterioration. Repairs were carried out in 2019, and completed that summer.[20]