Acme Spring Waukesha - Natural Springs on Waymarking.com

Acme Spring can be most safely reached in the Mountain Village Apartments from the corner of Mountain Ave and Motor Ave. Public access to this Spring has been granted. You can park in the lot right by the spring. The view is handicapped accessible but to reach the front of the spring, the terrain should be considered with the current weather conditions. The Landmarks Commission expressed that visitors use common sense when approaching from the hill to view this spring. The terrain rating was given for this reason.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

High View, Acme, The Carleton and Sunnyside Springs. The land on which these springs were located was on the west side of St. Paul Avenue, just north of the Wisconsin Avenue bridge. The first mention of a spring there was in an 1879 Freeman article that mentioned that Isaac Lain (a local businessman) had fixed iron pipes to his spring to use the water for street sprinkling. (Sprinkling the dirt roads helped keep the dust down.) Later, Lain developed a park around his spring and called it High View Spring. In 1883 or 1884, the name was changed to Acme Spring. Acme water was shipped to Chicago via rail car. The 1892 plat map of Waukesha showed that another spring, Sunnyside was also located on this property.

Eventually, the spring fell into the hands of one of the managers, George Carleton. He did not develop the spring, but there were published reports in 1914 that he had considered doing so.

The limestone structure built into the hill sat neglected and forlorn for many years. The road projects in the area have interrupted the regular water flow.

In 1995, the Landmarks Commission, along with land owner Bryce Styza, restored the limestone structure. Work has continued on this spring, with recent trimming to once again open the spring to public viewing. There are further plans to restore this spring to it’s former glory as funds become available.

There no long is water flowing from this Spring.