Merrill Park is the offspring of a railroad and the namesake of that railroad's guiding light. Sherburn S. Merrill, a gentleman farmer whose estate was set upon the north rim of the Menomonee Valley, was also general manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (later Milwaukee Road) railroad. In 1868 Merrill purchased roughly fifteen acres at the west end of Wisconsin (then Grand) Avenue, setting up the railroad shop in the valley below. He began to subdivide his estate in 1883, providing homes for his laborers. Decades later Merrill Park was the home to two Milwaukee mayors: Carl and Frank Zeidler.