A Corner Institution

A 1906 postcard with a drawing of the Hotel Menasha, at its familar corner of Main and Mill Streets.  Surprising that there aren't any carriages or streetcars in the illustration, as so many we've seen in the past include those details.  In later years, photographs of the hotel at this angle will be de rigueur for its postcard line.

New and Elegant Sleepers!

February 11, 1885, Oshkosh Northwestern

 

This ad is another in our series commemorating the golden age of railroad travel in the Fox Cities, this time for the Wisconsin Central.

Bathing at Waverly Beach

A colorized postcard ca. 1909 attributing Waverly Beach to Appleton

 

As we end this week, the first Friday of the fall season, let's hearken back to those lazy, crazy days of the fleeting summers of the early 20th century.  It was a time when bathing at the beach involved more clothes than many of us wear walking around the mall today!   

I'll be away from the blog next Monday but expect me to start it up again on Tuesday. Happy Weekend! 

Annexation?

June 4, 1965, Neenah-Menasha Northwestern

 

 

 June 17, 1965, Neenah-Menasha Northwestern

 

In the sense that growth" means getting bigger, comes this demonstration of vitriolic name calling between two neighbors.  Being an 8 year old kid when this was going on and with more interest in Batman, naturally, than in civic affairs, I'm sorry I missed out on this. 

 

But reading this now, when I can appreciate the nuances of a good insult, my fondness for the City's arrogance that they were going to "save" the Town of Menasha from the "colossus giant," Appleton, is only surpassed by the Town of Menasha's response that the City of Menasha is nothing more than a city of gas stations and taverns.  Ouch!

New Taste Delight

June 4, 1965, Neenah-Menasha Northwestern

 

While technically just across the "border" in Neenah, I think few of us would quibble about including this establishment in a blog about Menasha.   Robby's was a chain of hamburger restaurants based in Wisconsin and quite popular for its time.  What fascinated me most as a kid was that Green Bay Packer fullback Jim Grabowski was a Vice President of the chain.  He appeared in many of their advertisements, as evidenced below. At their peak, there were at least 13 Wisconsin locations as well as five in Minnesota and two more in Michigan. But they went out of business in the '70s.  It was around this time that I heard rumors that their product was, shall we say, of an equine nature?  Was this the main reason they closed shop, or was it generally due to the beef shortages that plagued the food industry in the early '70s?  One theory is that the meat crisis was caused by, of all things, a massive reduction in the population of anchovies living off the coast of South America. As these tiny fish migrated elsewhere, farmers who relied on them for animal feed had to pay ever-increasing prices, driving up the cost of beef. This, in turn, led to black market butchers, runs on beef supplies, and the rise of pasta as a main dish for many families. Others blame a lag in grain production which was a vital component of animal feed at the same time as demands mounted for more beef.  In time, of course, meat supplies stabilized and prices dropped, but the damage had been done.  And when the smoke cleared, smaller restaurant chains, like Robby's, were the victims.

December 6, 1969, Appleton Post-Crescent

On the Square

July 19, 1967, Oshkosh Northwestern

I don't remember seeing too many ads for Menasha Furniture in my research, but this building nevertheless had a long and storied history at its location on the corner of Milwaukee and Chute streets.  In its many incarnations, it was a dry goods store, the first location for the city's public library, a movie theater, and finally a furniture store.  Over the years, the upstairs offices headquartered businesses as diverse as attorneys and even a radio station. 

Merge Counties?

September 21, 1967, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern

 

A trip back in the ol' time machine to 48 years ago today brings us to this editorial on the front page of the Northwestern, decrying the then-recent idea to merge Outagamie, Winnebago, and Calumet Counties into one.  It was an idea thought up by the editor of the Appleton Post-Crescent and then run with by Appleton Assemblyman Harold Froehlich.  The proposal even included moving the county seat to the Town of Menasha, more or less in the center of the area. 

 

But within a month or so, the idea fell by the wayside and little more of it was heard again.  For the time, it brought some heated discussions within the valley and between the main competing newspapers, especially when Oshkosh was left off the map for this idea, hence the caption above.  (It references Winneconne having been left off the state map earlier that year; remember that?!)