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Summary
Wisconsin Concrete Park
Highway 13, Town of Worcester, Price County
Designer: Fred Smith
The Wisconsin Concrete Park is an outdoor museum comprised of over 200 embellished concrete and mixed media sculptures built between 1948 and 1964 by Fred Smith, a retired lumberjack and self-taught artist. Installed throughout Smith's northwoods property near Phillips, WI, the site is a historical panorama of life-size and larger-than-life tableaux depicting people, animals, and events from local, regional and national history, from local lore, and from Smith's expansive imagination.
Fred Smith was born in 1886 to first generation German immigrants to Price County. He built his house, barn, and tavern on property he homesteaded in 1903. Smith worked in regional lumber camps from his early teens until 1948, when he retired due to severe arthritis. At that time he began to build bas relief plaques and sculptures in the vicinity of his tavern. Smith's work evolved from two dimensional into three-dimensional sculptures and tableaux, which he built on an ambitious scale throughout his property. Smith called his sculptural environment the Wisconsin Concrete Park. He focused his energy on its creation until he suffered a stroke in 1964, and was unable to continue.
Smith made sculpture within the longstanding, formal tradition of commemorative monuments and memorials, and within a regional tradition of grotto building. Conceived and created in his senior years, Fred Smith built the Wisconsin Concrete Park as a gift "for all the American people." The site is recognized as a masterwork in the genre of 20th century sculptural environments created by self-taught artists.
The Park is now owned by Price County and is open during daylight hours.
Property Details
| Criteria | Architecture/Engineering |
|---|---|
| Area Of Significance | Art |
| Period of Significance | 1948-1964 |
| Architectural Style | Late 19th And Early 20th Century American Movements |
| Architect | Smith, Fred |
| Resource Type | Site |
| Historic Use | Single Dwelling,Restaurant,Work Of Art (Sculpture, Carving, Rock Art),Garden |
Resources Within The Property
| Contributing Buildings | 2 |
|---|---|
| Contributing Sites | 1 |
| Contributing Structures | 0 |
| Contributing Objects | 1 |
| Non-Contributing Buildings | 3 |
| Non-Contributing Sites | 0 |
| Non-Contributing Structures | 2 |
| Non-Contributing Objects | 0 |
Designations
| Historic Status | Listed in the State Register |
|---|---|
| National Historic Landmark Listing Date | Apr 15, 2005 |
| Historic Status | Listed in the National Register |
| National Historic Landmark Listing Date | Oct 28, 2005 |
State & National Registers of Historic Places
The State Register and National Register recognize buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that are significant in national, state, or local history. The State Historic Preservation Office in conjunction with the National Park Service maintains the list for Wisconsin and makes the data available to the public for research and education.
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Email UsAttribution
For a credit line: Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Unique Identifier.
The Unique Identifier can be found at the top or bottom of the page for each item. The name of a downloaded file is NOT the unique identifier.
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Fred Smith's Concrete Park
View of several sculptures in Fred Smith's Concrete Park.
Fred Smith's Concrete Park
View of several sculptures, including depictions of people, angels, and various animals in Fred Smith's Concrete Park.
Fred Smith's Concrete park
Detail of a statue of a man at Fred Smith's Concrete Park.
Fred Smith's Concrete Park
1994
Fred Smith's Concrete Park, including folk art pieces depicting people, dogs and a team of horses.
