Dog 'n' Suds Now Open!

September 19, 1961 Appleton Post-Crescent 

This chain was created in Champaign, Illinois, by school teachers James Griggs and Don Hamacher. Very common throughout the 1950's and 1960's, at one time the company had about 850 restaurants. Griggs sold his interest in the business in the early 1970's and, as often happens in business, the new East Coast owners tried new cost-cutting techniques, such as changing the root beer formula but this only served to alienate their customer base to the point that business fizzled and many locations were closed.  

As of November 2011, seventeen locations remained open in Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, and one lone holdout in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Broadway Tavern- Circus Display?

March 11, 1961 Oshkosh Northwestern

I found the above article of interest, as I was a frequent patron of the Broadway with my parents for their fish fry in the early '60s.  (My father would always refer to it as going for the "fish lunch," even though we headed over there at 7 or 8:00 at night.)  I don't recall any circus paraphernalia but then I doubt I was ever in the front room with the bar, where I'm sure it had been on display.

We'd always enter through the back door where there were many booths.  Each booth had some sort of buzzer gadget attached to the wall, like a doorbell button to summon the server to take our order.  I thought it a big deal to be the one to push that button, but then, what was I...6 years old?  7?  And, in synch with the local drinking culture and the times, I was allowed a kiddie cocktail, of sorts, which to me was very exotic.  In retrospect, I remember it being quite green, so I'll bet it was Twin City lime soda.  But then it arrived with the added garnish of an olive.  I loved that.  To think...me "drinking" with the parents- how sophisticated. 

Oh, and I'm sure the fish was great, too. 

January 11, 1968 Appleton Post-Crescent

Washington Street Bridge Dedication

Postcard from around 1927

Buried in this August 19, 1920 article (above) from the Oshkosh Northwestern is a small mention of the city's plans for the September 9th dedication of the Washington Street Bridge.

More elaborate detail is shown (below) in this September 9th piece:

But it is, again, buried after a report about the electrotypers' convention and of how their wives (presumably) were allowed a drive to High Cliff as an outing.  Who edited this?! 

Regarding the Oshkosh Northwestern of this era- I've noticed that articles seem to be written in great detail in advance of a special event, but then there is little or no follow-up on what actually transpired at or after the event.  For example, there were no photographs or words the next day about what actually happened at the dedication ceremony.  I'd like to have seen a photo, or at least a representational drawing, of the planned "dancing on the pavement" following the "program of addresses."  Not sure why news was handled like this at that time. 

The Appleton Post-Crescent of September 10, 1920 DOES give a synopsis of what happened at the dedication ceremonies, though perhaps it is because Appleton officials were in attendance, as evidenced by the secondary headline:

Nevertheless, I'm sure the dance was a huge success...probably welcomed more so than the speeches by three current mayors and six ex-mayors!  Whew!

The Climate is Salubrious....

From a book entitled  “Popular Resorts, and How to Reach Them: Combining a Brief Description of the Principal Summer Retreats in the United States, and the Routes of Travel Leading to Them" by John B. Bachelder, published in 1875

Menasha, being situated at the foot of Lake Winnebago and Lake Buttes des Morts, and embracing part of Doty's Island, furnishes picturesque and entertaining scenery, unsurpassed by any western town.

The climate is salubrious, and no place on the continent is freer from epidemics. The air is mild and bracing, and yields a vigor and endurance to the system that is above all price.

Lake Winnebago provides boating, sailing, and bathing facilities- Steamboats ply on its limpid waters, and sailing vessels can always be had, furnishing ample means for pleasure excursions. Rowboats are kept in connection with the National Hotel, always at the service of guests, furnishing a most agreeable exercise, on the ever placid waters of Fox River and adjacent bays of the lake. In connection healthful with other sports, fish and game are plenty, and the sportsman need have no lack of pleasurable novelties.

I love the way 19th century authors wrote- such flowery prose. Still, I had to look up the word "salubrious" to learn it means "favorable to the health of mind or body."  And I scratched my head, though only momentarily, at the mention of the town being free of epidemics.  Written in 1875, before the advent of modern sanitation and wonder drugs, it is easy to forget that typhus, cholera, influenza, yellow fever, and the like were once a common threat in parts of America and took a terrible toll on the populace.

St. Mary's Choir

This photo of the 1900 St. Mary's Choir comes courtesy of the St. Mary Parish Centennial Celebration booklet of 1967.  

Since some of the choir members in this photo were still alive in that centennial year, some were solicited for their memories.  Miss Delia Planner, in the first row, remembered that every summer, the choir was treated to a day long outing at Smith Park.  Each member brought their own lunch.  Miss Planner also stated that her father had been the original organist at St. Mary's in 1867.  Miss Elizabeth Marx succeeded her father as organist and served from 1887 to 1903. 

Of such people, a parish was comprised- people working together to give a distinctive voice to the community.  And in the choir's case, a melodious one, we suspect. 

W. T. Grant

We're all familiar with Grant's as an anchor store at Valley Fair Mall but why did it leave the mall in the early '70s? 

Grant’s stores had been traditionally smaller variety stores in downtown areas.  (The Grant store at Valley Fair was a welcome exception.)   Even so, Grant was slower than Kresge to adapt to the growth of the suburb and the change in shopping habits that this entailed.  Kresge, after all, had created the concept of the Kmart and they were enormously successful.  But Grant was a little bit late to the dance. 

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the company built many larger stores known as Grant City, (Appleton even had one on Northland Avenue that later morphed into a ShopKo) but unlike Kresge's Kmart, they lacked uniform size and layout, so that a shopper in one did not immediately feel "at home" in another.  The chain's demise in 1975 was in part due to their failure to adapt to changing times but was more likely accelerated by Grant management's insistence that shareholder dividends be continued in spite of whatever monetary difficulties the company might be in.  After the company began to lose money, funds were borrowed to pay the quarterly dividend until it became impossible to continue.  A final tactic to stay in business involved requiring Grant's clerks and cashiers to offer a Grant's credit card application to customers to boost sales in the stores.  Reportedly, the company would extend store credit to all customers, with no attempts made to assess the customers’ ability to repay. 

W. T. Grant's bankruptcy in 1976 was the then-second biggest in US history and, sadly, became a case study in my late '70s Marketing class at UW-O on how not to run a business.  

Pictured above: A double whammy - an obsolete product from a defunct store chain. 

Schultz Bros. Co.

I'm sure we all have memories of this fine store.  I distinctly remember its creaky floors, which I was sure, as a little boy, were created by design to alert the store clerks to my every move near that toy counter! 

This 5 and 10 Cent chain began in Appleton in 1902, when Robert Schultz opened a small store there. Louis Schultz, Robert’s brother, opened a second store in Green Bay in 1903, and a third one in 1904. Two other brothers, Charles and Gustave, joined the company which eventually became a chain of 76 variety stores located in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The 1980's saw the end of this chain when Schultz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988. 

This is not to be confused with a Schultz Brothers pharmacy which was located at 180 Main Street (corner of Main and Milwaukee) through the 1940s. 

Tayco Street Bridge Collapse of 1989

Temporary repairs were made to last until the new four lane bridge was built in 1993 at a cost of 3.2 million dollars. Before the accident, the Tayco Street Bridge had been what is known as a double leaf, Strauss Underneath Counterweight bascule bridge and the only bridge of this type in Menasha. But after the south leaf collapsed, it was replaced with a fixed steel girder concrete span.  Only the north leaf operates now, essentially making the bridge a single leaf structure, as seen in the photo below.

Three Railroads

Engines of the three railroads servicing Menasha pose in front of the Whiting Paper Company in the late 19th century- the Chicago and Northwestern on the left, Wisconsin Central in the middle, and the Milwaukee and Northern Railroad on the right.   The Milwaukee and Northern was the predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, also known as The Milwaukee Road. 

But, as it often happens in big business, mergers and bankruptcies changed the face of railroad history.  

The Wisconsin Central was first merged into the Soo Line in 1961 but as we'd call it today, the   "brand" was spun off and saw new life in the mid 1980's using most of its original rights of way and some former Milwaukee Road rights of way after the Soo Line acquired the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota holdings of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road and divested its older railway trackage in Wisconsin in 1985. In 1993 the Wisconsin Central also acquired the Green Bay and Western Railroad and the Fox River Valley Railroad.  The Union Pacific absorbed the Chicago and Northwestern in 1995.

In 2001 the Wisconsin Central was purchased by the Canadian National Railway. Along with the former Illinois Central Railroad, the Wisconsin Central and the Soo Line became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. 

Occasionally, you can still see the old names on box cars as they go by as you wait at railroad crossings.  And they live on in countless model railroad layouts around the country, but especially in our memories.  

Camelot Grand Opening

May 29, 1975 Appleton Post-Crescent

This nightspot brings back memories- I graduated high school 10 days after its grand opening so you know I spent a little time there.  Check out those prices! 

In time, Camelot had locations in Green Bay and Appleton, too.  Of course, it didn't last forever; most establishments of this kind never do.  How did those lyrics from the famous musical go....

Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known
As Camelot

Fox Point Shopping Center

While this is primarily a Menasha blog, the communities of Neenah and Menasha are so close geographically and otherwise, that there is bound to be some spillover regarding the surrounding area. After all, how many times have I invoked the name of Valley Fair within these pages, and couldn't it be considered more of an Appleton asset than a Menasha treasure? 

How many of us lived in one town and worked in the other, or vice versa?  Even I worked at the J. C. Penney store at Fox Point for six years through high school and college in the late '70s while residing in Menasha.  Maybe you saw me in the men's department selling leisure suits! 

Despite what some people will tell you, there was, and still is, lots of crossover (and interest) between the two towns.  

So...imagine a road trip...a shopping trip away from the ol' hometown.  We all did it.  And sing along with me.  Come on...you know you remember this:

Pack the kiddies in the car,
Come just as you are
To Fox Point Shopping Center.

Most convenient stop by far,
Only seconds from your car.

Free and easy parking, too.
The shoppers' paradise come true.

It's fun to shop
At Fox Point Shopping Center.

(How many times didn't we hear this over WNAM in the '60s, '70s, and maybe even the '80s?  Oh, for an MP3 of this.)

Criminal Hijinks of a Juvenile Sort

November 8, 1969 Oshkosh Northwestern

All appears to have not been all sunshine and rainbows in the ol' hometown- larcenous pursuits by young would-be gentlemen?  Ye gods!  The "Get Smart" reference is so appropriate as this tale is straight out of a situation comedy.  Too bad the writer didn't let on as to how the boys were finally caught.  I wonder what their punishment was. 

And in my young naivete, as much as I revered the comic books sold there, if I'd have thought up this trick, I'd have been happy enough to crack open a root beer and spend the night reading everything in sight!  I wouldn't have thought twice about the $312 in the register when I'd have had Superman and Batman to spend time with.

St. Mary's High School Band Honors Msgr. Hummel

November 3, 1939 Oshkosh Northwestern

Monsignor Hummel was the pastor at St. Mary's, from 1914 until 1948.  His long tenure there meant that my Mom was baptized by him, had religion classes with him and was married by him.  She often told me stories about how strict he was. 

Of course, being a little kid, I probably filed it away under the heading of those tales parents would sometimes tell to guilt their kids into something by telling them how "good" they had it- you know those stories that went something like..."in my day, we had to walk five miles to school in a raging blizzard...barefoot..."). 

But of course, I knew that story wasn't true.  I grew up in the same house my mother did and we only lived a block from St. Mary's.   As for the barefoot part, though....

Downtown View

This 1970s/80s postcard shows a view that no longer exists.  The area in the foreground of the photo has evolved, in that an office building now replaces the Menasha Furniture block and a dynamic mural of the city's history now fronts the city square from where the Bank of Menasha once stood.  

Nevertheless, let's begin the week with this view of a vibrant downtown looking east from Chute Street towards the city center on a lovely summer's day. The Bank of Menasha is at the extreme right of the photo, the Hotel Menasha is behind the flag pole, and the R.M. Scott building containing the Menasha Utilities offices is directly across Milwaukee Street from Menasha Furniture.

Weekend Excursion

 

April 13, 1931 Oshkosh Northwestern

With the weekend upon us, let's consider, as the ad says, another weekend excursion to Chicago, Milwaukee, or even Waukesha via the ol' Soo Line. One cent a mile is a pretty good rate, wouldn't you say?  Meet you in the dining car.   All aboard! 

First St. Mary's Church

The first St. Mary's church and school pictured here in 1869

We covered the origins of St. Mary’s in the Menasha book but to reiterate, in 1867, the German-speaking Catholics of Menasha separated from St. Patrick's (then known as St. Charles Borromeo) and organized a parish of their own, known as St. Mary’s.  On Ash Wednesday, February 7, 1883, a fire destroyed this St. Mary church, devastating the parish.  As the St. Mary 1967 Centennial Celebration booklet states:

As the congregation was beginning to leave after morning services shortly after 10 a.m., it was discovered that the vestry room in the rear of the church was ablaze.  Monsignor Andrew Schubert, the pastor at the time, noticed the votary lamp at the altar fall and knew the string which held it had burned.   At the same time he noticed an odor of burning pine and saw slight smoke oozing through the cracked floor in front of the altar.  Realizing the church was on fire, he asked the people to go quietly out but to avoid a panic.  Then the old bell rang out its shrill fire alarm and hundreds of willing hands fought the fire but it was evident the wooden structure was doomed. At first the flames spread into the belfry and the bell, loosened from its support, fell from timber to timber until it rested on the entry floor.  The raging flames ravished the wooden structure and ate up the floor.  The old bell caved into the basement.

Somehow, within three days, their pastor, Monsignor Schubert, rallied his parishioners to pledge $14,000 towards a new church!  (That's approximately $330,000 in today's money.)  In November of that same year, the new church, the one that we know today, was dedicated. 

And as for that bell, it was hauled away and was mounted on a platform to be used to call in the parish school children for many years.  It lasted until 1890 when the continued hammering of the bell in one place finally cracked it. 

Menasha Wooden Ware

This 1947 aerial view shows the Menasha Wooden Ware in the center of the picture. The street at the bottom is Main Street.  The bridge at left is the Mill Street bridge and you can see a bit of the old library at the intersection of Mill and Water Streets at the lower left hand corner.  Right across the street from that is the Hotel Menasha.  Notice the railroad siding outside the plant, boxcars at the ready to be filled with butter tubs and other wooden products. 

Photograph courtesy of Menasha Public Library.

Banta Offices Open House

November 3, 1939 Oshkosh Northwestern

According to The George Banta Company Story, great joy was felt by workers when these offices were completed in 1939.  Besides the addition of a professional conference room and a library, quickly forgotten was the summer long ordeal of noise, dust ,and insects, barely contained by the simple canvas curtain separating the construction area from the day-to-day office activities set up temporarily on the second floor of the area known as Building no. 2. 

New Technology for Learning

October 6, 1973 Twin City News-Record

If the video tape player Menasha schools bought in the early '70s is anything like I remember, it's akin to the bulky cumbersome reel to reel variety we used in my speech class at UW-Oshkosh in 1976 (see above). It was big and heavy and traveled from class to class on an AV cart...remember those?  

Still, kudos to the Menasha School District for jumping on the technology track back then.  

Contrast this with the tablet computers that today's elementary students are being issued (and individually, I might add) and one can easily say it's an even more marvelous, wondrous world our kids are learning in today. 

But then, we all thought our transistor radios were the end all and be all at one time too! 

Beer Party

With the celebrations of welcoming 2013 still ringing in our ears, here's to a nice weekend, the first of many this year.  Once again, Happy New Year to you all! 

Hedberg Drug Store

from the 1945 Neenah-Menasha Telephone Directory

July 19, 1960 Oshkosh Northwestern

Originally known as the Stilp and Hedberg Drug Store, many of us remember this address in later years as the Lang Pharmacy.  In the photo above, if you squint just right, you can see the Hedberg sign right above that last car parked diagonally on Main Street. 

Menasha Pool Revisited

In the middle of this cold winter, we can always long for warmer days.  In keeping with that, let's take another look at the old Menasha pool.  One of the distinct features of the pool was pictured here- the greenish-tinted bleacher deck atop the locker rooms.  Reportedly, there was seating for up to 700 spectators. 

Happy New Year!

 

December 31, 1965 NM Northwestern

 

We, at the blog, go back in time to wish you a happy 1966 along with many other familiar merchants of the Fox Valley. 

 

Happy New Year, and may 2013 be your best year ever!