Delafield's downtown on Genesee Street is one of the prettiest in the county, a walkable stretch of restored buildings, restaurants, and shops with the Bark River running behind it. It has managed to grow without losing the small-town scale, which is harder than it looks.
Lake Nagawicka is the centerpiece, and Naga-Waukee Park on its shore has the golf course, the beach, and trails. Cushing Park downtown hosts the summer concerts and the farmers market.
Lapham Peak is the one that makes Delafield different. The Kettle Moraine's northern high point at 1,233 feet, with a 45-foot observation tower you can climb for a view that reaches to Holy Hill on a clear day, and in winter it is one of the only lighted cross-country ski trails in the state.
St. John's Northwestern has been on the north side of town since 1884, and its campus is part of the Delafield skyline. Between the school, the lake, and the state forest, this is a town with more going on than its size suggests.
Delafield sits at the intersection of everything, I-94 on one side, the Kettle Moraine on the other, and Nagawicka in the middle. That location made it a stagecoach stop in the 1840s and it is still why the town punches above its size of roughly 7,000 people.
