Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
TIVOLI GARDENS
TIVOLI GARDENS. Favorite picnic site in northern Dubuque. Located at the intersection of Central and Kaufmann avenues, the twenty-acre tract of forested land was a popular summer leisure stop for picnics or a rest after work.
The Tivoli Gardens, one of many BEER GARDENS, were located in a grove of oak trees, which formed a part of the grounds surrounding the “frame mansion” which Lucius Hart LANGWORTHY built in the early 1830s. The grove extended all along the west side of Central Avenue from what is now Kaufmann Avenue to the buildings just south of the Schmid brewery. Westerly the grove extended back beyond Frances Street, possibly to where North Main Street intersects Kaufmann Avenue.
Just when the Tivoli Gardens were opened is not known. It is thought that it might have been early in the 1850s. When the gardens were opened, Dubuque had not been very densely populated. In time, the gardens gave way to a residential subdivision. The garden’s frontage on Central Avenue was limited to from Twenty-Third Street to its old northern boundary. It eventually passed out of existence.
John Schaffner came to Dubuque in the latter part of the 1840s and is believed to have been the first operator of the Tivoli Gardens and the builder of the Tivoli Garden House. It remained under the ownership of Schaffner until 1860 when a Richard Cox became the owner. In 1863 Joseph Zugenbuehler became the owner of the property, and operated the gardens until 1876 when John Krayer became the owner. He was the owner when the beer gardens were discontinued.
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Source:
Sommer, Lawrence J. The Heritage of Dubuque: An Architectural View. 1975