Next Sunday, Oct. 11, the Friends of San Damiano hold their last Sunset Games of the year from 4 to 8 p.m. on the lawn above Lake Monona. Rich Kessler plays classic rock, blues and country. Jakarta Café runs the food cart, the Friends sell drinks, and bags, bocce, ladder toss, Connect 4, croquet and giant Jenga are free to play. The series has run on the second Sunday of every month since May, and October closes it out.
The evening is easy to enjoy. The setup behind it is less obvious. Nearly every piece of a visit to San Damiano right now is a stopgap: parking borrowed from a school lot, dinner from a cart, a historic house that can only be used in summer, and a city license that expires Dec. 31. The plan the Monona Common Council approved this spring is designed to replace those stopgaps one by one. How soon that happens depends on money and permits more than on anything a resident will see on the lawn this fall.
Getting There Next Sunday
The park sits at 4123 Monona Drive. You get in by a narrow, one-way former carriage drive off Monona Drive, and cars and people on foot share it. On-site parking amounts to a handful of accessible spaces. When the city put out event guidance in its July 15 newsletter, it sent everyone else to Monona Grove High School, about a block and a half away. The Friends gave the same advice for their August concert and suggested biking, carpooling or the bus.
The Oct. 11 listing doesn't mention parking or a shuttle. The free shuttle from the high school at the Sept. 19 gala was set up for that one event, so don't plan on it for Sunday. Here's a practical plan for the evening:
- Park at Monona Grove High School and walk the block and a half, or bike in.
- Bring your own dinner if you like. The Friends' listing welcomes either option, food cart or your own.
- Arrive well before sunset. The Friends promote the view as one of the best sunsets in Dane County, and that view is the reason the event exists.
- If you stay after the music ends at 8, city parks close at 10 p.m. Ordinary hours run from sunrise to 10.
The House at the Center Can't Host You Yet
The Frank Allis House stands at the middle of the property. It was built in 1893 and 1894 as part of a 600-acre farm developed by an heir to the Allis-Chalmers family. The Norbertine order later used it as a novitiate, and from 1975 it was rented to the Capuchins, who named it San Damiano Friary. The land's history goes back much further. It was an encampment and burial ground for Indigenous people, including ancestors of the Ho-Chunk Nation. The city bought the property for $8.6 million in 2021.
The house isn't open to the public. Friends executive director Cara Erickson told the Leader Independent that it isn't up to code and isn't accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It has no heat in winter, and the only restrooms on the property are porta-potties. The house also runs on a private well.
On July 20 the council approved a short-term license that lets the Friends use the house from May 15 to Sept. 15 only. City Attorney William Cole described the limits plainly: "Only warm weather months, limited to 49 people, and they can only use the first floor." That makes a Sunset Games evening in October an outdoor event, built around a food cart and a lawn, beside a building that sits closed until spring.
Phase I Targets the Same List
Put the April plan next to a current visit and the two line up closely. The council unanimously approved the Phase I Conceptual Development Plan on April 20, 2026. Channel 3000's report on the vote lists what's in it:
| What a visit runs on today | What Phase I proposes |
|---|---|
| A few accessible spaces and a walk from the high school | Added parking on the property |
| One narrow, one-way carriage drive | Walking paths connecting the park to Monona Drive |
| Porta-potties | Restrooms inside a remodeled Frank Allis House |
| A different food cart each month | Food and beverage service in the house |
| Lawn seating | A lake-facing patio, with a path to a new pier |
Erickson called the vote "a transformational moment" and said Phase I "removes long-standing barriers" while adding ways for the park to earn its own revenue. She has also been specific about what the house work will and won't be. "The words we're using is rehabilitation for daily use or modern use," she said. "We're not renovating the property to preserve the house as a single-family home or dormitory."
Mayor Nancy Moore said the plan "addresses current barriers and creates opportunities for programming and partnerships, while retaining and even showcasing its serenity."
The Timeline Depends on Funding and Permits
What the council approved is a concept. Erickson said the drawings so far are conceptual, not architectural. "All of this depends on money raised and permits," she said. "It's all still very open in terms of our timeline."
At the April meeting, board president Wes Mosman Block laid out the next steps. The Friends plan to choose a design team, a construction partner and a food and beverage partner. They also plan to start a historic structures report and a National Register nomination, and to launch a capital campaign. "A year from now, I think we'd have a much better understanding of what that schematic design would be," he said, along with better cost estimates and a clearer sense of how fast the campaign is moving. That points to spring 2027 for a real design and price, and it says nothing about a construction date.
The only public cost figure is about $13.3 million. That estimate dates to 2024, when the full master plan was first approved, and it covers the whole project, not Phase I alone. The latest project update on the Friends' blog is a June 1 post about the April approval. Nothing posted there since names a design team or construction partner, launches a campaign or sets a fundraising goal. Their donation page covers general giving and partnership inquiries.
The Deadline That Comes First Is Dec. 31
The design schedule is loose. The license schedule is fixed. The July agreement runs only through the end of this year, and Cole said the plan is to see how the pilot goes and draft a new agreement that takes effect Jan. 1. The current license can also renew if both parties agree. No long-term license or lease has appeared on the council agendas for Aug. 17, Sept. 8 or Sept. 21, or on the agenda posted for this Monday, Oct. 5.
That agreement is tied to the same house work Phase I would pay for. Alder Doug Wood said in July that he would support the interim terms this time but wouldn't in the future unless the house was brought up to fire code and ADA requirements. Alder Teresa Radermacher argued that a pilot didn't need to be perfect. The upgrades a future license may require are the same upgrades Phase I's capital campaign is meant to fund, and that campaign hasn't been publicly announced.
After Oct. 11
The Friends' public calendar lists nothing after Sunset Games. City records do show one more date. On Sept. 8, Monona's License Review Committee took up applications from the Friends for an amplified sound permit and a temporary Class "B" beer license, both for Saturday, Oct. 17, with the beer license marked as a new event. As of today, the Friends haven't announced what that event is. The committee meets next on Oct. 13. No winter programming is listed, which makes sense for a property whose only building has no heat and closes after Sept. 15 under the current license.
For the rest of the year, the park stays open on the city's ordinary schedule, sunrise to 10 p.m., for anyone who walks down the carriage drive. The next steps to watch are the new license, which is planned to take effect Jan. 1, and the design and cost numbers Mosman Block expects about a year after the April vote.
Our team watches Monona's council and committee agendas as closely as we watch its sales, because a park plan like this one shapes the blocks around it long before construction starts. If you live near Monona Drive and want a clear read on what San Damiano's next phase could mean for your home when you're ready to sell, MHB Real Estate can walk you through it. Get started.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
