Judith Davidoff
Mifflin Street Block Party 2019
Mifflin Street partiers this year stroll the same 500 block of West Mifflin that in the 1960s served as the physical and spiritual heart of Madison’s counterculture.
Madison is marking the 50th anniversary of the first Mifflin Street block party and the three-day riot that erupted on May 3, 1969. Twenty-five years ago, while studying historic preservation at UW-Madison, I conducted research on the potential to designate the 500 block of West Mifflin, the epicenter of the party and riot, a historic district. The proposal I wrote discussed the early history of the street and argued that the historic events of May 1969 met the city ordinance’s criteria for historic designation. The proposal was presented in 1994 to the city’s Downtown Preservation Task Force, among other groups, but no action was taken. Remarkably, the 500 block remains intact today, much as originally constructed between 1900 to 1908.
I believe the case remains strong for designation, while the pressure for redevelopment grows. A large apartment building was recently constructed on Bedford Street and the middle of the 400 block of West Mifflin is undergoing redevelopment.
How will Madison feel when demolition crews come to tear down any of the houses at the heart of “Miffland,” the place name given to Madison’s hippie enclave? It is easy to foresee a spirited debate and real angst when a proposal is submitted to the city to take down a group of houses on the 500 block.
Like the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco, Miffland provided a refuge for hippies, drug users, feminists, anti-war protestors, and others who opposed the Vietnam War and wanted to explore alternatives to the dominant, uptight Cold War social structures. As the anti-war protests ramped up, city and national authorities, including the FBI, decided to strike at the heart of Madison’s counterculture, which led to the confrontations on May 3 over a block party in the spring of 1969. That history is recorded elsewhere; my research considers why the enclave was located on West Mifflin Street and identifies the physical features that also make the case for historic designation.
The 500 block was still a marsh in the 1890s. When the wetland was filled, the new houses had unusually high foundations to avoid wet basements, requiring stoops up to the front porch. Working class residents and small business owners shared “over” and “under” duplex flats. Porches were added to many of the second-floor flats. Gable front houses, a folk style that is used on 27 of the 33 houses, were built close together on narrow lots, creating a rowhouse-like effect. Crucially, a corner grocery was built at 32 N. Bassett St. around 1902.
Because of these features, when a hippie, anti-war counterculture formed in Madison in the 1960s, the 500 block of West Mifflin became its physical and spiritual heart. The stoops and porches made for an active street life, and the formation of the Mifflin Street Community Cooperative (at 32 N. Bassett) in 1968 provided a hangout and space for organizing. It was a great place for a block party!
Today, the street remains an intact representative of its period of construction, reflecting both that era and also the social and political history of the city and nation during the late 1960s. The block meets the city’s criteria for historic designation: it is identified with “important events in the national, state or local history;” reflects “the broad cultural, political, economic or social history of the nation, state or community;” and embodies “architectural type specimens inherently valuable for the study of a period or periods.”
It is a plain fact that the events that took place in “Miffland” in May 1969 and May 1970 were some of the most dramatic moments in the history of the city. Social forces both national and international became focused and dramatized at the intersection of Mifflin and Bassett streets. Classic American archetypes of authoritarian patriotism and radical, utopian populism clashed in wild scenes of anarchy and suppression.
To our descendants this will be a fascinating period with vividly drawn battle lines and historic characters acting on their most deeply felt convictions. Two people stand out: Ald. Paul Soglin, a UW-Madison student, who made a name for himself during the riot, and Eugene Parks, Madison’s first African American alderperson. Both represented part of the Miffland area, and both were arrested during the riot. The fight for a multicultural and inclusive society was also part of the history of Miffland.
In August 2016, the city of San Francisco initiated a study to create a Haight-Ashbury Landmark District, with potential designation based on “its association with the events of counterculture movement.” Miffland is much smaller than the Haight, and its history less well known. Even a single redevelopment project on the 500 block would destroy its cohesion. Designation of a historic district would preserve not just the place, but also memories of a critical time in the history of the city and nation. Creation of a Miffland museum in the former co-op building could anchor and draw visitors to the historic district. Better that Madison consider the issue now, than wait for a redevelopment proposal.
