July 1985

What can I say about this place that hasn't already been said? 

We all remember the creaky floors of that ol' dime store.  And if I close my eyes, I think I can also recall the smell of the place, too.

Remember when ALL your photographs came back from the photo developers with a date printed in a white border that surrounded the picture?

Marathon Mills

Here's a nice linen postcard view of the Marathon Mills in Menasha.  I'm not sure what that interesting looking tower is in the left center though. 

As covered previously in this blog, Marathon was organized in 1909 in Wausau, but didn't become a presence in Menasha until 1927 when it acquired Menasha Printing and Carton Company, a manufacturer of bread wrappers and paper containers for food.  Later, printing capabilities and its own ink plant were added, making the then Marathon company the largest printer in the world.

Corrugated

By the 1920s and 30s, things were changing quickly in the packaging industry.  This early advertisement from the 1920's reflects the Menasha Wooden Ware's reliance on new packaging solutions to take the place of wooden pails and barrels.  By 1935, the barrel factory would be converted to the manufacture of toys and juvenile furniture.  "Corrugated" was the new watchword. 

This ad has all the earmarks of a classic Menasha Wooden Ware ad- informative text, simple graphics, and a printed border that looks like tree bark.

Two Views of Early Menasha

The above book cover reproduces a Thomas Dietrich oil painting depicting early Menasha and the beginnings of the Menasha Wooden Ware in 1856.  The artwork is very reminscent of the artwork featured in my blog entry of September 7, 2012 (see below).  You may recall that this print was entitled A Salute to Menasha's Pioneering Spirit, and was featured for sale at the opening of the marina in 1987. 

Despite the similarities in the two pieces, the reality of 1856 is more likely reflected in the rough-hewn imagery above than in the lazy, dream-like pastels below. 

Walking Down Mill Street

This view of downtown from the late 70s/early 80s gives one a gritty view of the well-worn streets and buildings.  The old library to the right, vacant since 1969 is indicative of the city before various urban renewal projects.  Those initiatives changed the face of downtown, creating the marina to the west of the Hotel Menasha and razing the entire right side of this photograph.  As a result, an office building and parking lot complex now fills the entire city block from Mill Street to the Racine Street Bridge.

Sssh, Quiet!

This photo purports to be the Menasha High School library in 1938.  And judging from the bare shelves, that date makes sense.  This may have been snapped shortly after the "new" school was open for classes and perhaps the books hadn't yet been replaced since the 1936 fire. 

Happy weekend!

The Gang's All Here

Menasha Wooden Ware workers pose outside the factory in 1895.  An industrious, rough looking lot, but those were the times. 

Notice the young boys in the front row, to include a lad without shoes at center right, dressed like every stereotypical Tom Sawyer you've ever seen.  For that matter, the fellow in the front row, a bit older, at the extreme left has no shoes either.  But yet, most everyone has a hat.  The ground in front of them looks littered with wood chips and other debris; tetanus is just waiting to happen.  

My 21st century sensibility asks, why is a hat so important if you have no shoes?  Working out in the sun makes hats a necessity, I know and social decorum of that era, I understand, made hats a requirement, but still....

Marcus Theaters 25th Anniversary

 June 18, 1960 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

The Brin and the Neenah and all the other uniquely named theaters in that ad above may be gone, but let's see what was playing at the movies, 53 years ago, back when we had them. There's quite a variety of shows playing, even some that might later be called minor classics. And lucky us, there's special events, too to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the local theater chain. Sharpen those pencils to win that 1960 Rambler station wagon! 

Ben Marcus started in 1935 with a single movie theater in Ripon, but today, the enterprise he spawned has grown to 700 screens in multiplexes and super entertainment complexes across the upper Midwest to include locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. The company has also branched out into resorts and hotel accommodations, to even include ownership of the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. 

Buzzing the Ball Field

I found this photo recently in a book celebrating the Fox Valley communities over the last 100 years.  The caption read: "An early 'flying machine' buzzes the Menasha Ball Park in 1925." 

So here's a good example of me trying to decipher dubious photographs when I'm obviously not an expert at it.  I DO have my doubts about this one.  I can't be sure that this is THE Menasha Ball Park I grew up around... you know, the one off Fourth and Racine Streets.  For that matter, I can't be sure of the year either.  1925 seems kind of late for women to be wearing outfits that look like that, but of course, it IS staid, ol' conservative Menasha, so who knows really.  And then, there's the airplane.  It seems rather primitive for the 1920's, considering how modern, say, Lindbergh's plane looked when he crossed the Atlantic in 1927, a mere two years later.  Heck, the airplanes in World War I  had more sturdiness and were more modern than this plane.  This looks like the era of the Wright Brothers, more 1904/1905 or thereabouts frankly. 

Despite all that though, you can't help but marvel at the starkness of the surrounding space, considering how the landscape would become so much more crowded around that area in the coming years.  If indeed, it IS Menasha.  Hopefully, they got that part right. 

A View Card

People have long collected and traded postcards of their home towns and places they have visited.  This blog has featured many examples featuring the ol' hometown. 

This particular handcolored postcard of the Elisha D. Smith Library in Menasha is known in the hobby as a "view card," one of which, since postcards began, has been the mainstay of the collecting field. 

This type of card offers an historic reference to buildings, streets, and sometimes even towns which may no longer exist or that have changed significantly over time.

I won't belabor the obvious; we all know about this ediface, from past blog entries and our own personal histories.  But despite our familiarity, these cards can often surprise, offering much in the social history of the times if we give them a little study.  A lot can be learned as they offer looks at early forms of travel, significant architecture, and the beginnings of telegraph, telephone and power lines.  

So, next time you're presented with an old picture like this, take a good moment to take it all in.  You might be surprised at what it can add to what you already know.  

Felt Pennant

In the early part of the 20th century, postcards and especially picture postcards were the email of the day.  Cheap, convenient, and plentiful, users sent them out by the thousands to tell loved ones that they'd arrived at their destinations, give updates on sick relatives, or just provide general folksy chat.  Manufacturers of cards went out of their way to be novel and original.  One such novelty was the felt pennant postcard. 

The pennant postcard was a stock card carried by a publisher which could be imprinted with a town or city name on request. In this case felt fabric has been cut in a pennant shape and printed with the city name then glued to the postcard.  Often, the pennant would be accompanied by a caricature of an ethnic stereotype with some "witty" saying. 

To me, the Dutch kid is somewhat reminiscent of the Alfred E. Neuman character from Mad magazine. 

Bradley Portrait

 

reverse

 

G.W. Bradley's studio was at 42 and later at 125 Main Street in Menasha where he plied his trade. Born in 1838 in Niles, New York, he came west in 1856 and only began his photography business in 1875.

 

Dealing with facts and figures, maps and drawings, old documents and records... it is only too easy to sometimes forget that real people were involved here, with hopes and dreams and aspirations, and perhaps, too many moments that challenged them.  Day to day life was hard back then.  You can see it in their faces, though the dour expressions we expect from photography of this era was largely due to the long exposure times and the prevailing thought that this was a record for the ages, and often the ONLY photograph ever taken of some of these folks.  One wouldn't squander the opportunity on a frivolous expression or dare we say, a smile.  No, photography was a serious business, expensive, and nothing less than a dignified presence would do. 

 

I wish I could say that Walter grew up to be a captain of industry or that Lucy became a well-respected teacher.  Their last names might never be known, but we know that these little ones, like all of us at that age, had their whole lives ahead of them, complete with their dreams for a bright future.   To look into those faces and ponder their fates, there's your history, my friends.  

Get a Grip

This flier from the Menasha Wooden Ware illustrates all the various handles the company produced.  In an era when things were not so disposable, the useful life of various tools and implements could be lengthened by a simple replacement part such as this. 

A Crowd Gathers

This 1940-ish photo shows a crowd at the Neenah-Menasha Depot.  Though I cannot, with surety, vouch that this photograph is of the following event, I imagine similar assemblies looking like this:

On October 22, 1940, Company I, 127th Infantry Regiment, and the Headquarters Companies of both the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 127th Infantry Regiment, departed the Twin Cities bound for Camp Beauregard, Louisiana. 

A newspaper article in the Menasha Record on October 20, 1943, commemorating the 3rd anniversary of their mobilization for WWII, recalled that:

    “The boys were given a rousing sendoff by the cities of Menasha and Neenah,  
      whose people gathered upon the streets to see them on parade as they marched
      to the depot for entrainment to the southern camp.”

A better judge of vintage automobiles could undoubtedly deduce the time frame of the above photo. 

First Congregationalist Church

The first public religious services in Menasha were conducted by Congregationalist missionary, the Reverend O.P. Clinton in 1848. The church pictured above at Broad and Milwaukee Streets was built in 1866, largely sheparded by Elisha D. Smith, himself not a church-goer but who raised funds for it nevertheless to better the community.  In later years, after having had a religious awakening, he became so active that it was said he was "the man who built the church and then ran it." 

Special note:  You can see this church in the Menasha skyline in the stave yards photo featured in this blog on June 6th. 

This church was built on the same grounds in the 1920s to replace the original one.   The building to the right housed the clergy. 

Tayco Street Swing Bridge

This swing bridge over the Fox River at Tayco Street precedes the familar 1928 version with the four towers that we all grew up with.  It's an interesting view.  You can see the Carl Koch building at the corner of Tayco and Water Streets in the backgound to the left.  Built in 1882, it had a grocery and general store in the lower left half of the building with a lunch room and a sample room located in the other half. The building contained apartments on the second floor. By 1882 standards, it was as impressive a building as you'd find in the Fox Valley area. 

Stave Yards

This view of the Menasha Wooden Ware stave yards dates itself by the downtown details on the opposite shore. In the top center is the National Hotel and to the right is the Elisha D. Smith library.

The National, with its distinctive square shape and rooftop cupola, burned in 1901 and the Hotel Menasha was not built on the site until four years later. With the library having been built in 1898, that leaves a three year window for dating this photograph...1898-1901.

Tyke Toys

As the wood products industry changed in the 1930s due to packaging innovations, such as corregated cardboard boxes, the Menasha Wooden Ware changed with the times.  This 1934 brochure highlighted the toys and juvenile furniture that the company began to make and market.  This introduction of dollhouses, dollhouse furniture, tables and chairs helped to bolster the company's survival and the security of many jobs for its craftsmen. 

This lamp at the right was a Tyke Toys product.  It is 1 1/2" scale.  .

photo courtesy of My Vintage Dollhouses blog
http://my-vintage-dollhouses.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html

Smith Park

This 1928 view of Smith Park shows what eventually would be designated as the Isle of Valor and the Fox River beyond.  Notice the logs piled high, a testament to the city's wood working and paper industries.  At this time, the river was still utilized as a viable means to get raw materials to the factories and mills.

Early Arrival

This oil painting by Richard Barrett depicts the arrival of Menasha Wooden Ware founder Elisha D. Smith and his wife, Julia to Menasha in 1850.  Smith was all set to move to Atlanta, Georgia and open a dry goods business until he received a letter from an acquaintance who had seen the village of Menasha and urged him to reconsider his plans.  Smith travelled all the way to Menasha from his home in Woonsocket, Rhode Island to check it out before returning to marry Julia and begin his life here.  Reportedly, Julia's father never forgave Elisha for taking his daughter so far away.