Koch Building

Once upon a time, this area of Tayco Street was a booming business district that threatened to rival the downtown Main Street area. In the 19th century, there was a wagon bridge that crossed Little Lake Butte des Morts and entered Menasha just down Water Street.   For a quarter-century it allowed farmers easier access to the flour mills in the Twin Cities.  Area merchants welcomed selling them supplies for the return trip back to their farms. Except for a short time about 1856, when the bridge was damaged by a steamboat enroute upstream, the bridge functioned well until the mid 1870s, when the wood began to deteriorate and it was abandoned.  This building was constructed with faith that that bridge was to be rebuilt, but it never was.  As a result, trade in the Tayco Street area languished until the early 20th century when further efforts were made to improve the area, to include construction of the Brin Building in the late 1920s.

Built by Carl Koch in 1882, this building held his general store in the lower left half of the building. This 1982 photo is courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.