What Might Have Been

 February 18, 1962, Appleton Post-Crescent

We've touched upon this before- how it is widely believed that the founders of Menasha never intended Broad Street to be a totally residential neighborhood.  Instead, some had intended that it would become the center of retail activity in the city.  The buildings as shown above in this 1962 photograph are remnants of that hope and remain standing today.  The government land office was even located at this very intersection, until relocated to Wausau in 1893. In fact, there had been talk over the years that the chief problem with retail development over the years was a result of sticking to the Main Street plan, instead of allowing more businesses to spring up on Broad Street.  Why that should be when the main artery through town to Neenah is WI 114 (via Main Street) and which automatically lends itself to retail expansion remains to be seen.  Personally I believe it to be a convenient excuse.  But Menasha could have looked very differently.  I've read that St. Mary's was located at Second and Appleton Streets instead of more downtown because of this very view that Broad Street was going to be big and the parish would be more adjacent to this retail mecca.  So this theory could have had some validity.  How different our city might have been.