Merry Christmas!

As we gaze upon the Christmas tree on the ol' city square, let me offer my thanks for your interest and support in making this blog a success. 

I will take a short break from blogging, but I will return after the New Year.  Until then, may your world be filled with warmth and good cheer this season and with peace and love throughout the year! 

I wish you the happiest of holidays and the merriest of Christmases.

WNAM Christmas Music

December 22, 1973 NM Northwestern

 

Not so long ago, this ad from my high school years told me that the new Blue 128 would serenade us with the old favorites to color our Christmas season.  Here's hoping your last weekend before the big day is filled with good times.  The treasures of the present will become the golden memories of tomorrow.

 

Happy weekend!

Malenofsky Home Revisited

A few days back we first visited the Malenofsky home.  Today we glimpse the children in the throes of Christmas cheer.  On the left is William and on the right is Lucille.

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library. 

Ponkratz Christmas Tree

 

 

A table-top Christmas tree in the home of John and Mayme Ponkratz. They lived at 224 Chute Street.  John was an employee at the Menasha Wooden Ware. 

 

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

Malenofsky Christmas Tree

 

The Christmas tree in the home of Michael Malenofsky Jr. at 300 Water Street.  The picture on the left is Michael and Mary Malenofsky. Michael, a papermaker at Bergstrom's in Neenah, made the play chest for his daughter. 

 

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

Christmas Display at Laemmrich's

Pictured above is the Laemmrich Funeral Home at 312 Milwaukee Street, considered the “Catholic” funeral home in Menasha for parishioners at St. Mary’s, St. John’s, and St. Patrick’s Churches. During the holidays, for many years its Christmas display was a tradition during Menasha’s holiday season. 

This photograph was featured in the Menasha book, but in the spirit of Christmas, it is brought to the blog by reader request. 

Putting Up Christmas Decorations

I found this photo in my archives today and the caption said "putting up Christmas decorations."  Judging from the fire truck and the jewelry store, I'd judge this to be a scene from the late 1940s/early1950s.  Notice the snow chains on the back wheel of the fire truck, a good safety feature. 

With Christmas only 11 days away, I hope you have your holiday plans well in order. 

Have a great weekend! 

A View from the Square

This 1906 photo from the city square shows off the recently built Hotel Menasha, completed in 1905.  In front of the hotel, a carriage waits patiently for a fare while cyclists ride by.  The building directly to the right of the hotel is the newspaper office of the Menasha Daily Press and to the right of that is the First National Bank, built in 1887.  In the coming years, in 1917, the newspaper office will be torn down and a new bank will rise on the site, the stately four-columned bank that served the city for the next 48 years. 

Henry Fitzgibbon

Henry Fitzgibbon's home at 329 Chute Street.  An attorney with an office at 148 Main, he was born in New York in 1849 and died in February,1933,  He was a one term former mayor of Menasha (1901) and was also city attorney and a member of various boards.  His wife was the former Emma Stilp (1856 - 1935).  The obituary below highlights his notable life, so much so that upon his passing, it appeared on the front page of the Northwestern. 

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

February 27, 1933 Oshkosh Daily Northwestern

Happy Holidays from Golden Griddle

December 22, 1969 Appleton Post-Crescent

Holiday wishes from the staff of our favorite Valley Fair eatery. 

Badger Highways

19 July 67 Appleton Post-Crescent ad

Pictured above is the Badger Highways quarry located between 9th Street and Airport Road. It had been used by Badger Highways since 1947, when the company moved to Menasha from Oshkosh.  Quarrying operations were halted at this location in 1979 due to the residential growth around its location. Materials are now hauled in from Badger’s operating quarry located in the Town of Center in Outagamie County, north of Appleton.   But Badger Highways' main office, shop, and equipment yard are still located at the original Menasha site.

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

St. Mary's Convent

Pictured before the addition of the "'62 building" to the campus, this 1959 postcard shows the convent that was built in 1950 to house the School Sisters of Notre Dame who taught at the grade and high schools. 

In 1983, after 33 years in the present building, the sisters moved out. Two Christian Brothers moved into the convent with a vision to develop a faith community and called it the La Salle Center. Supported by the residents of the Fox Valley, the center provided youth retreats and ministry services. Eventually the center was purchased from St. Mary’s Parish and in 1999 its name was changed to the Mount Tabor Center.

As the only staffed youth retreat center in the Diocese of Green Bay, the Mount Tabor Center serves more than 3000 people annually with youth retreats as its primary focus.

Marathon Trade Ads

Back in July, we took a look at Marathon's paper specialty field of food packaging.  These trade ads portray some of the types of wrapping products the company produced for the food industry. 

1898 Menasha High Football Team

Football was first introduced to Menasha High School in 1895 but it was mostly an intramural affair and died a quick, unheralded death.  In 1898, the team pictured above was organized until Nick Wagner broke his collar bone.  As a result, interest again waned until 1902.   This was no surprise as football at the turn of the century was a violent affair.  Little protection for players, illegal forward passes, and a five yards per down system made the game a grinding, bone-crunching free-for-all.  Typical formations consisted of players locking arms in wedge formations to protect their ball carriers while using their bare heads as battering rams against the defense. 

The general consensus among Americans was that the game should be banned.  The newspapers were filled every season with sad obituaries of young men, who succumbed to skull fractures, fractured ribs piercing organs, and twisted spinal cords from the violent game.  President Theodore Roosevelt is largely credited with saving football in 1905 by calling meetings at the White House with various college officials to revamp the game.  These men were the forerunner for the NCAA.   They legalized the forward pass, abolished the dangerous mass formations, created a neutral zone between offense and defense and doubled the first-down distance to 10 yards, to be gained in three downs. The rule changes didn’t eliminate football’s dangers, but fatalities declined—to 11 per year in both 1906 and 1907—while injuries fell sharply. An increase in fatalities in 1909 led to another round of reforms that further eased restrictions on the forward pass and formed the foundation of the modern sport as we know it today. 

Boy Scouts

Boy Scouts from Troop 9 pose on the steps of the Menasha Public Library on Mill Street in 1925.  At the time of this photo, the troop was only two years old.  Scouting in the Fox Valley was fairly new; the Valley Council of Boy Scouts had only been formed in Appleton in 1920. 

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

Late 19th Century Street Views

These views of Broad and Chute Streets in 1887 give one a good feel as to the rusticness of the city streets during that time.  Menasha's Main Street itself wasn't paved until 1910, so one can infer that it took the remainder of the teens and '20s to see the paving of neighborhood thoroughfares like this when the city budget allowed.  No shortage of trees, was there?!