The Brittingham Park Boathouse represents the Progressive Era civic improvement efforts of the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association. In 1894 a group of civic leaders, influenced by the "City Beautiful" movement, organized the Association to create scenic public spaces for the enjoyment of the city's residents. The group developed a series of professionally planned parks and drives, including Brittingham Park in 1905. In 1908 the President of the Association called for a public bathhouse and boathouse to compensate for the many private ones destroyed during the creation of the park. Thomas E. Brittingham, a prominent Madison lumberman who had donated the land for the park, responded with an offer to help finance the project.

The design of the complex, and of the boathouse, was a collaboration between distinguished landscape designer John Nolen of Cambridge, Massachusetts and the prominent Milwaukee architecture firm of Ferry and Clas. The boathouse was built in 1910. It is a balloon-frame structure on concrete footings. The only reference to an architectural style is a Gothic-influenced pointed arch doorway flanked by light fixtures that resemble torches. A 1921 addition, which replicated the original materials and design, extended the south wing and altered the building's original symmetrical appearance. In 2006, a major renovation added a sympathetic addition to the north, duplicating the 1921 wing and bringing balance to the overall design.

Today the boathouse is the oldest remaining building associated with the Park and Pleasure Drive Association. It is also the oldest public park building standing in Madison.