Instead of a beautiful park, it was marshy and "weedy, littered with kitchen garbage and dead fish, and a breeding ground for mosquitoes."

At a 1904 meeting of the Pleasure Drive Association, a speaker pointed out that 90% of visitors to Madison traveled past the bay on the railroad, and proposed improving the "disease breeding hole" into a park.

In 1905 lumber baron and philanthropist Thomas E. Brittingham donated an initial $8,000 to buy another 27 acres along the bay.

Work proceeded to dredge sand from Lake Monona and use it to fill in the marshy areas, then cover that with soil and plantings.

The boathouse was one story tall and thirteen bays wide, with walls of cypress on concrete footings, hip-roofed.

The style is mainly utilitarian; its ornamental features include overhanging eaves with exposed rafters and a pointed arch entrance.

The central block housed the office, a refreshment area, and men's and women's locker rooms.