Broad Street Changes - 1962

February 18, 1962 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

We have seen recent blog entries highlight the construction of a new Germania Hall in 1963, the historic grocery of John Schriebeis from the 1880's and the building of the Riverside Clinic in 1957, all on Broad Street.  Here is yet another entry about Broad Street. 

 

This article showcases efforts to transform Broad Street into a business and commercial zone, one of the many efforts over the years to stimulate business in the downtown area.  As with the article, research supports the idea that at one time in the 1800's, the intersection of Appleton and Broad Streets was the nucleus of what could have become a third commercial district, after Main Street and the Tayco Street Bridge area, perhaps even becoming the dominant area.  The two taverns and former grocery remaining at that intersection bear witness to that effort.  And, to add even more emphasis to this contention, remember that the US Government Land Office had been relocated from Green Bay in the 1850s to a location on Broad Street to regulate the sale of public land bought from the Indians. 

Today, the remnants of this 1962 effort to bolster Broad Street seem to be the absent homes that once bordered the rear of Main Street businesses, sacrificed for parking.