Hours

The Lynden Sculpture Garden is open to the public during the hours listed below. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, admission is free at this time.

The sculpture garden will be closed March 31, 2024.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 am-5 pm
Thursday: CLOSED
Saturday, Sunday: 10 am-5 pm

Visitor Guidelines

The Lynden Sculpture Garden welcomes all visitors. For the safety and enjoyment of everyone and to protect the beauty and environmental integrity of the Sculpture Garden, please follow the simple rules below. Failure to observe these rules may result in the violator being asked to leave the premises.

Visitor Guidelines

  • Check in at the front desk in the main house (paper maps are available at the front desk).
  • For the safety of all concerned, we ask you to be respectful of others.
  • Don’t touch the sculpture.
  • Click here to download a map.
  • Access virtual tours and activities at lynden.tours.

Lynden reserves the right to:
• Limit entry if there are too many visitors on the grounds.

Paths

There are no paths at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. We strongly advise suitable footwear.

No Climbing on Sculpture

Do not climb on the sculptures. They are works of art, just as you would find in an indoor art museum, and are subject to the same issues of deterioration – and they endure the vagaries of our harsh climate. Many of the works have already spent nearly half a century outdoors and are quite fragile. Please be gentle with our art.

Lakes & Pond

There is no wading, swimming or fishing allowed in the lakes or pond. Please do not throw anything into these bodies of water.

Vegetation & Wildlife

Please do not pick our flowers, fruits, or grasses, or climb the trees. We want every visitor to be able to enjoy the same views you have experienced. Protect our wildlife: do not feed, chase or touch fish, ducks, geese, frogs, turtles or other wildlife.

Weather

All visitors must come inside immediately if there is any sign of lightning.

Pets

Pets are not allowed in the Lynden Sculpture Garden, except for on Dog Days. Guide and/or service dogs are welcome.

Access

Vehicles are allowed only in the parking lots. Driving on access roads or any walkways is strictly prohibited. The house and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. A push wheelchair is available for use; please call ahead to make arrangements. The sculptures are located on grassy lawns without paths, and many of the surfaces are uneven. Shoes must be worn at all times. If you have questions about accessibility, please contact us at info@lyndensculpturegarden.org or 414.446.8794.

Courtesy

The Lynden Sculpture Garden is a smoke-free facility, indoors and out. Children must be accompanied by an adult and be within reach at all times for their safety. All refuse must be deposited in the appropriate receptacles. As a courtesy to other visitors, please silence your cell phones.

Photography

Due to copyright restrictions, visitor safety and access concerns, no commercial photography or videography is allowed on Lynden Sculpture Garden property without permission. Personal photography/videography with handheld equipment is permitted, but reproduction or publication of still or moving images of the house, permanent collection, gardens, grounds or temporary exhibitions is strictly prohibited (this includes posting images on the internet, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or any other electronic/digital platform). Professional/commercial artists and photographers, as well as those doing personal special occasion photography, must receive permission to use the Lynden Sculpture Garden as a resource.

Click here for our complete photography policies.

Please contact us at info@lyndensculpturegarden.org if you have questions about the guidelines.

Thank you and enjoy your visit to the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

Admission

Admission to the Lynden Sculpture Garden is free.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we waived admission in response to the public health crisis. We understood that an outdoor sculpture garden was a unique resource for a community that could no longer gather indoors. Visitor numbers increased drastically. Lynden became a place where people power walked, held business meetings and celebrations, marked deaths, gathered their playgroups. Our grounds and sculpture became a resource for homeschool groups, social service agencies, and elder communities; canine attendance at our monthly dog days grew from a dozen to close to 100. Most importantly, Lynden became a place of respite, recovery, and peace.

That first year, free admission was underwritten in part by a generous grant from the Herzfeld Foundation. Having observed the impact of free admission on access—a central pillar of Lynden’s mission—we decided to keep Lynden free for visitors. Since then, we have relied on donations, grants, memberships, and rentals to support our educational and public programs, the conservation of the collection, and the maintenance of the landscape.

We welcome all visitors to Lynden. If you have the means and the inclination, we encourage you to donate: we keep a donation jar on the front desk and you can always donate online.

Consider becoming a member. Members keep Lynden strong, resilient, and responsive to our community’s needs. Free admission has always been a benefit of membership, but members also receive discounts on classes and camps, and they become part of the community that sustains Lynden, its facilities, and its programs.

If you are in a position to become a free admission sponsor, or advocate with your employer for such a sponsorship, please contact Polly Morris at pmorris@lyndensculpturegarden.org.

A Note on Visiting Groups
We welcome self-directed group visits to Lynden, but we need to know that you are coming so that we can manage the parking lot, picnic areas, and other facilities. We offer self-guided tours for a nominal fee, but we understand that some groups prefer self-directed visits.

If you are planning a trip to Lynden, please call our front desk at 414-446-8794 so that we can alert you to any scheduling conflicts.

Directions

The Lynden Sculpture Garden may be reached via I-43, exit Brown Deer Road. Head west on Brown Deer Road (Hwy 100) for approximately 0.8 miles. The sculpture garden is located on the left (south) side of Brown Deer Road.

Enter through the west gate. This is the entrance closest to the barn and immediately opposite the westbound left turn lane on Brown Deer Road. There is a small sign hanging from a lamppost at this entrance that says "LYNDEN. Harry L. Bradley."

photo (2)
Our (small) sign. That's Brown Deer Road to the right of it.

Parking

There is room for 50 cars in the parking lot. Parking is free.

A Brief History of Lynden

The Lynden Sculpture Garden (formerly the Bradley Sculpture Garden) was the estate of the late Harry Lynde Bradley and Margaret (Peg) Blakney Bradley. Harry Bradley, an inventor and industrialist, founded the Allen-Bradley Company with his brother Lynde in 1904, building it into one of the state’s most successful manufacturing concerns. Harry married Peg in April 1926. The date of their wedding is commemorated on the wooden bench by the fireplace, as is the year they purchased the property and named it “Lynden.”

The Bradleys took the nearly 40 acres of flat farmland and, with the help of Chicago landscape architects Langford & Moreau, created an English country park with gently rolling hills, trees and flower beds. The lake and the rustic bridge spanning the water were designed to match Harry Bradley’s memories of the municipal grounds in Kansas City where he swam as a boy.

In April 1934 the Bradleys hired Carl Urban, a fourth generation gardener, to supervise the crew and the planting of the garden beds and trees. Trained in Germany and the United States, Urban observed that when he first saw the acreage behind the house it consisted mainly of corn fields with horses, sheep, goats and 13 oak trees. Over time, nearly 4,000 trees were planted on the property--several varieties of elms as well as Norwegian, Austrian and Scotch pines, Norway maples, a Danish plum tree, seven varieties of birch trees and Kentucky coffee trees. Urban remained on the staff and resided in the apartment in the barn until his death in 1991.

Further plans to construct a botanical garden on the site were derailed by the outbreak of World War II. In 1962, Peg Bradley—already an experienced art collector—began collecting the contemporary monumental sculptures that secured Lynden’s international reputation. She collected actively until her death in 1978. The collection includes sculptures by Alexander Archipenko, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Clement Meadmore, Marta Pan, Tony Smith, Mark di Suvero and many others. After the works had been purchased, Peg would sit on her porch to direct the location of wood models constructed by the staff as she chose sites for the sculptures. Some of the artists travelled to Lynden to assist with the siting and to assemble their work.

The original farmhouse, built in the 1860s, was enlarged to accommodate Harry, Peg and their daughter Jane. Local architect Fitzhugh Scott provided drawings for the alterations to the barn, the bathhouse, and a diving pier and slide. Several decades later architect David Kahler designed an addition at the west end of the house for an indoor swimming pool, providing more space for the Bradleys’ growing art collection.

In 2009 the board of the Bradley Family Foundation elected to open Lynden to the public. This required an extensive renovation of the house and some of the grounds.
The house has been transformed by Uihlein-Wilson Architects using sustainable building practices. The newly created public spaces include a conference room, a large classroom/studio, a gallery and a glassed-in function space overlooking the large patio.

The project was designed to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. A large proportion of the existing structure was re-used or maintained, and more than 75% of the construction and demolition waste was recycled, re-used or otherwise diverted from landfills. Among the many sustainable features is a state-of-the-art geothermal heating system. Eco-sensitive landscaping designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates includes pervious asphalt pavement that promotes drainage, the preservation of mature trees, the re-introduction of native species, and sustainable drainage and care strategies, including pervious asphalt pavement and a rain garden in the new parking area. The renovated residence is available as a conference and retreat center, and for event rentals.

Special thanks to JoAnn Youngman for the history.

Biking

Bike racks are available on the sculpture garden grounds. For biking directions, visit milwaukeebybike.com. For information about bikes on busses, visit Milwaukee County Transit.

Public Transportation

Milwaukee County Transit
Bus route 63 terminates at the River Point Shopping Center, just to the east of I-43. Walk directly west on Brown Deer Road (approximately 1.2 miles) to reach the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

The 49U - Brown Deer UBUS Flyer (weekdays, while UWM is in session) stops at the Park & Ride lot just west of I-43. Walk directly west on Brown Deer Road (about half a mile) to reach the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

Amtrak
Amtrak trains serve the Milwaukee (MKE) station, 9.9 miles south of the sculpture garden. There are 14 trains daily between Chicago and Milwaukee. You may take a combination of busses or a taxi to reach the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

Tours

The Lynden Sculpture Garden offers a unique experience of art in nature through its collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures sited across 40 acres of park, lake and woodland. Traditional maps and artist-designed adventures are always available for self-guided tours, as are family-oriented guides and plein air painting boxes. Our picnic tables are also available for individuals, families, and groups.

Contact Us

Lynden Sculpture Garden
2145 West Brown Deer Road
Milwaukee, WI 53217

414.446.8794 - phone
414.446.8492 - fax
info@lyndensculpturegarden.org


©2024 Lynden Sculpture Garden