Hotel Menasha Memories

No big story here...just some old matchbooks, an old key, and an ad from the Hotel Menasha.  And it's beyond an ordinary buffet, we get a smorgasbord. 

February 8, 1968

Daisy Bruehl

1949 photo

Photo, date unknown, when the oldest library borrower in town, a Mr. Sommers (aged 95)        checked out a book

 

October 10, 1963 NM Northwestern

The fabric of Menasha's history is festooned with unsung heroes like Mrs. Bruehl, carrying on in the background and going about their day-to-day business.  Yet it was people like her who touched our lives in oh, so many subtle ways.  I'm sure we can all recall many such folks- teachers, clergy, storekeepers, and the like who not only made our town great, but who also benefitted our lives as a result. 

Photographs courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

What IS Cable TV?

December 3, 1973 NM Daily Northwestern

I remember when cable TV came to town.  My family never subscribed while I lived there, but my best friend did and I marveled at his being able to watch "exotic" TV channels from Milwaukee and Madison, and best of all, WGN in Chicago! 

This ad doesn't reflect it, but a year or so later when HBO was offered, his folks added that to their subscription and I can remember watching commercial-free movies and comedy specials at his house with George Carlin and Robert Klein, complete with all the "mature themes" and bad words.  Gotta love that "keep on truckin'"-esque illustration, but then, it WAS the 70's! 

Hard to imagine a time when you'd need to have a Q&A ad to explain something that we so take for granted now.  And for someone's cable bill to be only $5.50 per month?  Wow! 

The Mystic

May 21, 1887 Oshkosh Northwestern

Before railroads became the dominant means of conveyance, Menasha, with its presence by water utilized steamboats of all varieties to move cargo and passengers.  In the late 19th and early 20th century, paddlewheel steamboats were in service along Lake Winnebago and the Fox River, similar to ones seen on the Mississippi for example, though on a lesser scale.  Smaller pleasurecraft like the Mystic pictured above were a more affordable and convenient means to take a day long excursion to the other side of Lake Winnebago or to travel down to Oshkosh or Fond du Lac for picnicking.  Docking facilities might be nonexistent to the point of being precarious as seen in the above photo, but that didn't stop determined passengers from boarding.   

The Ol' Swimmin' Hole

Before the Menasha swimming pool, there was this...This 1897 photo shows the swimming area near the present day Memorial Building. In the background, you can see a swimming tank sheltered against the elements and the public's gaze, for modesty sake.  It'd be 60 years before the pool was built.  (photo courtesy of Steamboats on the Fox River by D.C. Mitchell, 1986)

"When You Live in Menasha, You Vacation Your Life"

Frank Hoffmann's grocery was at 163 Main Street, just a few doors down from the First National Bank.  We first caught a glimpse of it in the July 4th photo I posted on the blog earlier this year.  Obviously, Frank was a promoter of the city, as evidenced by the stationery he was using touting the advantages of living in 1930-ish Menasha.  I can only presume this was an intitiative of City Hall/Chamber of Commerce and expect that other merchants were doing the same thing.  Interesting slogan. 

Alexander N. Strange

from Memories of Doty Island (1999):

   Alexander Strange was born in Menasha in 1856. His education was in local elementary and high schools. He married Jane Chapman, a very talented and colorful person and daughter of Mr. John Chapman, formerly of Chapman & Hewitt Woolen mills. She loved people and entertained lavishly. She wrote the lyrics for a song used in 1912 for the Menasha Homecoming celebration. Eddie Hanson, the organist at the Doty Theater in Neenah, wrote the music.
   For a time Alexander moved to Watertown, Wisconsin, where his father-in-law operated a woolen mill. Alexander managed the plant until 1895 when he returned to Menasha and managed the John Strange Paper Mills which his brother owned. This did not work out well, so he and others established the Island Paper Company which bought Howard's company. They stayed in business until the 1920's, making corrugated paper which aggravated the citizens because of the odor which it emitted. They called it "strawboard."
   Alexander built the home at 515 Keyes Street in Menasha. They had only one child, a son, Alexander Thomas, who carried on the ownership and control of the Island Paper Company when he grew up. When he married, he and his wife moved in with his parents. They continued to live there even after their two children, Jane Clair and Alexander N., were born.

 Alexander N. Strange home at 515 Keyes Street

Mr. and Mrs. Strange in front of their home in their chauffeur-driven 1911 Oldsmobile