Last week, a reader wrote in to ask about the building located on the northwest corner of St. Paul Avenue and Water Street, across from the Milwaukee Public Market in the Third Ward:
"What is the funky shed-like building on the riverfront across from Public Market near the freeway underpass at St. Paul and Water? I think it is identified at Watershed. It doesn't seem to come up in any Google searches or appear as a business on Google maps."
The low, wood structure runs alongside the sidewalk on St. Paul Avenue and fronts on to the small park in that square of riverfront space. On the Water Street side, there is a sign on top that reads, "Watershed."
If you check out the Watershed, notice that right next to it, on the west side, there are places to launch kayaks and canoes, which offer a hint at its purpose.
I wasn't sure what it was for either, so we asked Ruth Lawson, communications director at the Historic Third Ward Association about it.
"The Watershed Building is owned by the BID and is used for kayak storage. The Association handles the rentals of spaces for the kayakers," she said.
"From what I understand, the (Historic Third Ward) Association worked with the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center to house a teaching center about Milwaukee’s rivers in one of the sections of the building. The interactive display which was there originally now resides ... at Discovery World."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
