Saturday May 19: East Side Landmarks with Ann Waidelich

Local historian Ann Waidelich speaks about the East Side’s landmarks—the buildings that currently have Madison Landmark status and those that ought to be landmarks.

Ann Waidelich will also discuss the city’s landmark ordinance—what it takes for a building to become a landmark, and how to go about nominating a building or house.

All attendees are welcome to share memories and memorabilia at our club meetings.

The Wangs, the Ben Franklin Store, and the “Two Marilyns”

Judson Grenier, who now lives in Manhattan Beach California, sent the History Club the following reminiscence about visiting his aunt and uncle in Madison–Norman Wang (1893-1983) and Dagny Wang (1897 -1988), who owned the Ben Franklin store when it was at 2110 Atwood Ave (where Dobhan Restaurant is today).

My uncle Norman Wang owned a compact but quite fancy Chris-Craft motorboat that was housed at a boat yard next to an outlet very near to Olbrich Park (Starkweather Creek).  You had to drive the boat under the Atwood Avenue bridge to get into Lake Monona. Norman allowed 10-year-old me in 1940 to streer to the Yahara River, up which we sailed into Lake Mendota to go fishing. His favorite spots were along the far shore. I don’t recall catching much other than perch and bass.

During the time I visited the Wangs they moved a number of times. In 1940 they lived in a single home at 506 Russell Street, within walking distance of the store.  Another of my visits occured after they moved to a duplex at 1225 Rutledge early during World War II. The duplex had a view of the lake. They drove to the store from the duplex, but I could walk.

I spent some time in the air-conditioned Eastwood movie theatre nearby, and sometimes they would let me run one of the store’s cash registers.

In the summer of 1946 I hitch-hiked with a high school friend, John Munson, from St.Paul to Madison.  We were 16, but about to enter our senior year in high school. Aunt Dagny found ways to entertain us, and she was something of a match-maker. She had a number of girls our age who worked in the store part-time, and she arranged for us to have both daytime and nightime dates with two of them, Marilyn Waite and Marilyn Raftree. She thought that we would fit well together, and she was right.

Madison had a teen canteen started during the war that was still functioning in the north part of downtown to which we took the bus (The LOFT), but my memories are of walking the streets around the high school and occasionally stealing a few very tart green apples from local trees.

The girls arranged for us to sign up to join a harvesting crew out in farm country to earn some cash, as apparently many Madison teenagers did in the summer, but it proved to be tough, dirty work and both my friend and I were allergy-choked from following the harvester thru the fields all day. We lasted one daily only–and never saw the money for that day’s work.

Many years later, after six years in college, three in the army, a new profession, wife Nancy and four kids, the whole family and dog in an overcrowded Travelall SUV visited the Wangs in their innovative all-aluminum (Lustron) home at 5112 Tonyawatha Trail in Monona.

They had achieved their dream of owning a home that they had helped to design, and still were near enough to the store on Atwood to commute reasonably easily along the Monona backroads.

A highlight for my kids was to walk across the street from that modern home in their bathing suits and swim in Lake Monona while the sun went down and the Capitol across the lake was highlighted by the sunset.

- Judson Grenier 

Saturday April 21 Schoep’s Ice Cream: Making History in Scoops, Pints, and Gallons

Apologies for the incorrect date printed on our mailed invitation this month! We meet on Saturday, April 21, at the Goodman Community Center, 2pm.

 

John Thomsen (one of the third generation of owners) speaks on the history of Schoeps Ice Cream, from its humble beginning in the back room of a grocery store to a company serving 49 of the 50 states.

 

Loftsgordon Lumber Company Remembered

The Loftsgordon Bros. Lumber Co. (ca. 1940?) Photo from collection of Cleo Loftsgordon

The Capital Times reported on Jan. 24, 1962 that St. Bernard’s Catholic Church bought the Loftsgordon property (2402 Atwood Ave.) for $48,000.
They built a convent for the school on the site shortly thereafter.  Now it is a shelter home for juveniles.

The lumber company was one of the pioneer businesses on Madison’s East Side, founded in 1907 by Henry, Herman and Oscar Loftsgordon.
It closed in 1961.  Henry Loftsgordon was the president of the lumber company but he was also a “snowbird”.  When he married Ruth Rice
the Central High School librarian in November 1923, they left for Los Angeles where they spent the winters and returned each spring
to spend the summers in Madison.

Ruth and Henry Loftsgordon had one son Donald.  He became a philosophy professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
When his mother died in 1966 in California he accompanied her body back to Madison for burial at Forest Hill Cemetery.   After the
services, he was so distraught, that he committed suicide in the Loraine Hotel.  He, too, is buried at Forest Hill beside his mother and father
who died in 1968.

-Ann Waidelich

Madison East High Auditorium Renovation campaign may get boost!

The Wisconsin State Journal recently reported on a new program to match public funds with private donations for projects like the “Raise the Curtain” fundraising campaign to renovate the East High auditorium.

We’ve been grateful to East High for allowing us to use the auditorium for our programs by John Olson and Dave Martinson on East High athletics in May 2010 and 2011. But we have to share the opinion of the acoustics and seating expressed in the WSJ article.

“The auditorium remains an ugly, acoustically dysfunctional lecture hall full of uncomfortable burnt orange bowling alley chairs,” wrote Matthew DeFour. The organizers of the “Raise the Curtain” campaign had hoped to find $3.5 million dollars by this year, in honor of East High’s 90th anniversary in 2012.

A refurbished theater would certainly be an asset to the area. DuFour quotes East High Principal Mary Kelley: “It will not only be an East High theater; it will be an East Side community theater.” But fundraising has been tough in the recent economic downturn. This new matching funds program could be just the ticket to get funds coming in. Read more here…

We blogged about the “Raise the Curtain” campaign June 6, 2011. Read that post here…

Photo by CRAIG SCHREINER – State Journal Paul Milisch, East High drama director, teaches a class Thursday in the auditorium, which currently features bowling alley chairs bolted to a concrete floor.

 

 

 

 

 

March 17 Meeting at East Side Club

 

Originally formed as the “Eastside Advancement Association” in 1912, the club changed its name to “ The East Side Businessmen’s Association” in 1923 and in 2006 to “The East Side Club.” If you’ve shopped or banked or attended school on the East Side, or enjoyed the shade trees and sports fields, or attended local festivals, you’ve benefited from the club’s good work.

Bring your stories of the East Side Club to share at our February meeting.

Special Meeting Location! East Side Club 3735 Monona Dr.

Saturday March 17 from 2–4pm. $2 suggested donation.

Join us at Goodman Center for February 18 meeting

 

Anyone who’s visited Olbrich Gardens has likely noticed what remains of an East Side landmark—the “Sugar Castle.” At our February 18 meeting we’ll review the site’s history and discuss the current state of plans for future preservation and use.

This large industrial complex was originally the United States Sugar Co. beet-sugar factory. More recently Garver Feed Mill operated there until 1997. The property’s fate had seemed secure with the approval of a plan by Common Wealth Development for an arts incubator modeled after the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA. But in May 2011 Common Wealth scratched its plans, citing the challenges of fundraising in a recession for the $15 million project, of which only $3.3 million in public funds had been assured. The city hopes to move quickly on a new plan regarding the fate of the building, which has been designated a Madison Landmark.

 

Schenk History Now Available on DVD!

In October 2011 the East Side History Club’s program featured historic photos and recent video about the Schenk-Huegel building and the families related to businesses there from 1893 – 2011.Sue Retzlaff, Ann Waidelich and Gretta Wing Miller have now completed the video.

View the trailer!

Own your own piece of local history–order the video on DVD from Sue for just $20!

Contact: Sue Retzlaff, 604 South 1st St., Mt Horeb  WI  53572  608- 437-4184

Madison-Kipp Corp: Bad Neighbor?

Channel 15 posted a video report titled “Madison families seek class action status for federal contamination lawsuit against Madison-Kipp” by Phil Levin on January 21st.

Seven families living on South Marquette Street in Madison, who had originally filed their contamination lawsuit against Madison-Kipp corporation on October 20, 2011, have amended their lawsuit to ask the federal court to grant class action status to some 80 people who own or live in 34 homes immediately adjacent to the company.

Read all about it here. You’ll find a link to view the video report as well.

 

 

Emerson Principal Karen Keppler makes history her hobby

On November 19, 2011 the East Side History Club learned about Emerson School’s history. Principal Karen Keppler couldn’t attend the meeting, but she did lend some of the items she’d found while cleaning old storage areas in the school for display.

Now Karen’s collection has captured the attention of the Madison press. Journalist Pamela Cotant profiled Karen Kepler and her treasures in the “School Spotlight” column on January 16th.

Read the article here!

Photo by ANDY MANIS — For the State Journal