Langdon Street

Arthur Vinje

Langdon Street wasn’t always the sole province of Greek-letter houses and student residences. Fred Milverstedt ’69, who grew up on the street, says, “I would sit on the front steps of the Pillars [apartment building], morning and night, and watch the parade [of] post-WWII students go by.” His mother would walk him partway to school and then have a police officer usher him across the street. In 1949, Officer Hector Naze posed with a seven-year-old Milverstedt on a State Street corner for a safety campaign. Milverstedt went on to major in journalism at the UW and spent time working for the Wisconsin State Journal, the Milwaukee Journal, the Associated Press, and the Capital Times. In 1975, he cofounded and became the first editor of the Isthmus, Madison’s free weekly, eventually becoming a writer and editor with the UW Foundation before his retirement.

Published in the Winter 2018 issue