website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Boughton Street Bridge
Considered same as Labaree Bridge
John Schlueter vividly recalls the Indians
that inhabited the city during his boyhood days. Near Boughton’s bridge there were nearly 100
Indian huts. He recalls having seen
hundreds of squaws with their papooses strapped to their backs, walking through
the streets here. The husband, he says,
always rode the horse, while the squaw and the papoose walked along
beside.
1855
09 13 PASSABLE ONCE MORE
The
hiatus of some thirty feet in the center of the Labaree
Bridge has been made good, so that vehicles may pass over with comparative
safety. The construction of a new one as
soon as practicable will be indispensable to insure safety to lives and
property. The present one was built over
ten years, the timbers of which are much decayed, and cannot be expected to
bear up much longer. WD
11 15 BRIDGE REPAIR ORDERED
The
committee appointed for examining the repairs made on Labaree
bridge [Boughton], reported in favor of said repairs, and their report having
been adopted, the said committee were discharged, and it was ordered that
orders be drawn on the city general fund for balance due to the contractors
amounting at $110.00. A resolution for
repairing Boughton bridge was offered by Alderman Werlich
and on motion referred to the committee on highways and bridges. WD
1858
Joseph
Boughton, profile of
1859
06 16 BRIDGE REPAIR ORDERED
Labaree bridge [Boughton] to be
repaired by putting a stringer under center of sidewalk and properly
secured to keep the plank[s] in their place, also raising and securing one bent
[warped plank?] that has settled out of place.
1864
02 12 To Contractors – Notice is hereby given
that proposals will be received by the undersigned, Chairman of the Committee
on Streets and Bridges, until Monday, the 22nd of February, 1864, for building
Second Street bridge, County Line bridge, Smith’s bridge at east end of Main
Street, and for a bridge between [on] Waldron Street, in the 7th ward,
according to plans and specifications in my office.
Said bridges to be finished within four
months from the letting of the contract.
Michael McHugh, Chairman of the Committee on
Streets and Bridges.
08 18 LIABILITY
FOR WORKMEN
Committee
on Streets and Bridges, report of Boughton bridge construction. On motion of Ald. Rogan the same was
recommitted to ascertain how far the city is liable to the workmen on said
bridge. WD
09 22 SETTLEMENT
WITH MR. BOUGHTON
Ald.
Graves, Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Bridges, reported that the
committee had settled with Mr. Boughton upon the following terms: Five hundred dollars now and forty dollars as
soon as he has properly fixed the abutments on each end of the bridge.
Resolved,
That an order be drawn on the City General Fund for five hundred dollars in
favor of Theodore Prentiss, to apply on the contract of Luther S. Boughton
& Son, the said contract have been assigned to the said Prentiss, the order
to be drawn payable to bridge contract and in accordance with the accompanying
report of the Committee on Street and Bridges, provided that the acceptance of
said order by the contractors shall be taken as a waiver by them of all claims
against the city on said contract, and for extra work and materials furnished
upon said bridge. Adopted. WD
10 06 SETTLEMENT
WITH MR. BOUGHTON
Alderman Graves, Chairman of Committee
on Streets and Bridges, reported that he had examined the Boughton bridge, that
the abutments were now made as directed by committee, but that Mr. Boughton
& Son were not willing to accept $540 in full pay for the bridge, claiming
extra pay for girths put in. No action
taken. WD
1877
12 19 SIDEWALK
TO OAK HILL CEMETERY
It may
now be regarded as a certainty that we [will] have a continuous sidewalk to Oak Hill cemetery.
Within a short time the sidewalk will be built to Boughton’s bridge and
through the enterprise of Mr. Boughton and the liberal spirit displaced by a
portion of our citizens the sidewalk from the bridge to the cemetery grounds
will be completed within a short time.
1890
06 06 NEW IRON BRIDGE
The Board of Street Commissioners at its last
meeting awarded the contract for putting in a new iron bridge in place of
the old Boughton bridge to the Milwaukee Bridge and Iron works for $4,577,
and the contract for remodeling and widening Main Street bridge to the E. Kunert Manufacturing Co. of this city for $4,500 with an
additional cost of $1.00 per foot for hand railing. We are pleased to see that a Watertown
institution has secured one of these contracts, and hope the day is not
far-distant when all work of this kind wanted in this city and vicinity will be
manufactured here. WG
1891
05 15 SIDEWALK AND APPROACHES
We
refer city taxpayers to the arbitrary and illegal ruling of the chair at the
last meeting of the Board of Street Commissioners on the matter of building a
sidewalk and filling approaches to Boughton's bridge. Such a ruling may get the city into trouble, and
it should not be allowed to stand. Regardless of the merits of the measure passed
on, a ruling of this kind is a bad precedent to establish, and we cannot allow
it to pass without censure, and such it deserves from every citizen. High-handed proceedings of this kind are, to
say the least, audacious and dangerous. It
requires five votes according to our city charter to carry any measure wherein
a money consideration is involved, but the chairman on Monday evening last
declared that four votes are sufficient. He might just as well have declared that it
only requires his own vote to carry the measure he so wrongfully ruled on. WG
05 20 GRADING EXPENSES
There
appears to be a difference of opinion as to whether the expense of grading the
approaches to the Boughton bridge and building the sidewalks should be a city
or a Second ward expense. The Second
ward has voted $100 out of the city general fund to use in improving outlying
roads in said ward. Now, as this bridge
is on one of the outlying roads in the ward, what wrong would there be in the
Second ward paying the expense of the work referred to out of the $100
appropriated from the city general fund? WR
1902
BRIDGE OVER ROCK RIVER
Known to be Watertown. Likely Boughton St. Bridge, viewed from
Riverside Park
1903
01 24 ICE OPENINGS FOR
FIREFIGHTING; FIRE HOSE PURCHASES
The
Committee on Fire Department was given power to hire men to keep the ice open
at Silver Creek and Boughton bridges for the use of the fire department.
CROSS REFERENCE NOTE: The 150-year history book on the Watertown
Fire Department mentions a spot underneath the Oconomowoc Avenue bridge where
the Rock River was kept open during the winter by inserting a barrel in the ice
and piling manure on top of it. In a fire
emergency a hose could be lowered into the water through the opening.
1906
07 29 COLLISION OF FARMER TEAMS
A collision of farmer
teams occurred Wednesday evening at a point this side of Boughton bridge, where
the road is very narrow and the embankment quite high. It was impossible to learn the names of the
farmers, but it is understood that one of them was quite seriously
injured. It was very dark at the point
where the collision occurred. Residents
in that section have long wanted a street light at the bridge and the recent
occurrence will no doubt bring the matter before the city council at its next
meeting. WL
1911
05 04 THAT DIVISION STREET SIDEWALK
On Wednesday afternoon
we viewed the premises on the north side of Division Street, west of East
Avenue [today Dewey Ave], in the 6th ward, and we must say we were greatly
surprised that the City Council, on recommendation of the Board of Public
Works, had ordered a sidewalk built there.
There is no earthly use for it as ordered by the City Council, for to
the northwest and east of the particular walk ordered, on either end of the
bridge, there is no sidewalk, and no one resides east on that side who is
calling for a walk. The only house in
the district is owned by one of the two property owners that will have to stand
the expense, and neither of whom desire the walk. The travel is all on the other side of the
street and there is a walk there as far as East Avenue. Then again there is no walk on the north side
of the Boughton bridge, the walk being on the south side of the bridge. Right should prevail in the matter and we
will wager all that we are worth that 99 out of 100 people viewing the premises
will agree with the Gazette in this
matter. Our people are being heavily
taxed of late years to carry on public improvements and there has been but
little grumbling, but where so heavy a burden is laid on individual taxpayers
as the building of this walk near Boughton’s bridge, without any public demand,
or where there is no great public benefit, we believe there is just cause for
complaint, and the Board of Public Works and City Council, if much of such work
is ordered, will meet with just condemnation by our citizens in general. WG
1914
BOUGHTON’S BRIDGE
c.1920
DISTANT VIEW, from Riverside Park
1937
The
213-foot-long bridge was constructed in 1937.
1982
Some
deck repairs completed in 1982.
2007
06 08 BRIDGE WILL CLOSE FOR WORK
The
Boughton Street Bridge (same as Division Street bridge) near Riverside Park
will be closed to traffic starting on June 19 so that workers can rehabilitate
the structure.
The
bridge work is expected to be completed by July 31.
Some of
the improvements include a concrete deck overlay of the bridge structure,
asphaltic surface milling, deck milling and prep, and asphaltic surface
approaches. The existing bridge rail will remain in place but will be repaired
and painted.
The
bridge work will cost $181,000 with the city covering 20 percent of the total.
The remaining 80 percent will be covered by state and federal funding.
The
213-foot-long bridge was constructed in 1937 and had some deck repairs
completed in 1982.
< PORTFOLIO OF PICS
Cross
References:
Boughton St Bridge Near old
swimming beach
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin