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Neat Buildings and Homes
This is a photo taken from just below Medford's downtown, Taylor County. In the foreground, you see the old train station; across the mid section of the photo is the main street, a wonderful section of old buildings filled with shops and retail; and rising above the town is the landmark Taylor County Courthouse. Two related photos follow: a close-up of the train station, which is now a restaurant, and the Courthouse, both terrific buildings.
The old Medford RR Station, now the Pine Line Depot Restaurant. The Pine Line takes its name from the huge quantities of eastern white pine shipped on this route by the Wisconsin Central Railroad between 1876 and 1988, and because of the beautiful stands of pine which dominate the area. The above two photos were taken in November 2005. The next two were taken in 2006 after the building was painted. Looks great! Congrats to the town for renovating a key part of its heritage.
The Taylor County Courthouse is on the National Register of Historical Places, added in 1980. Her architectural style is classical revival. Its period of significance is 1900-1924. Maple Grove School, Hamburg, Wisconsin in Marathon County, founded in 1904. The school runs K-12 and has about 112 students and seven teachers. She was not always this big, and not always red. It started a nice bright white, and in 1949 was painted red as part of a modernization effort funded by the Fromm Brothers. Fred Fromm's kids, Herbert, Walker, Edward, John Henry, Clara and Erna all were attending in its first year, 1904. The boys continued their education and each became a teacher. Together, they referred to themselves as "The Company" and in the late 1940s donated a sizable amount of money to modernize their alma mater. These are the law offices of Patrick Arendt on 130 N. 1st Street in downtown Wisconsin Rapids. October 8, 2005. Greenville Station site, on route 76 just west of Appleton, Outagamie County. Heather LaRoi wrote about it in 2003, and said, "Over more than a century, the building now known as Greenville Station has been a meeting spot in the community, serving as everything from a post office to a funeral parlor. It’s now a restaurant and bar ... The original building was built in 1897 as the Joseph Kronser Hotel and Saloon, which is how it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It served then as a railroad hotel, saloon and multi-purpose meeting place." October 5, 2005. Post Office at Tripoli, Wisconsin, Zip 54564. This is what a post office oughta look like! October 1, 2005. Barn at the corner of 25th and State Highway 52 just outside Wausau. Motor oil's motor oil. August 8, 2005 Lincoln County Courthouse, Merrill, Wisconsin. Ground broken in 1901 and the contract called for its completion September, 1902. Extensive nation-wide strikes at that time caused work to be suspended for over a year; no part of the iron work could be secured. Today, the colonial style building stands 192 feet tall and will for years to come. It is a monument to the progressiveness of the early citizens of Lincoln County. Photo credit: Marek Enterprise. Text from City of Merrill. April 17, 2005. City Hall, Merrill, Wisconsin was built in 1888-1889. Several rooms in the City Hall housed the T.B. Scott Free Library, which had been established through a bequest of Thomas B. Scott. The Library rooms opened in 1891, and were used until 1911. The city offices utilized this building until December, 1977, when they were moved to the former Church Mutual Insurance building. In 1978, this building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places. After being sold to private individuals, the historic structure was renovated into apartments. Photo credit: Marek Enterprise. Text by City of Merrill April 17, 2005 Originally opened in 1927 as an opera house, the Grand Theater located at 415 Fourth Street in downtown Wausau is a beautiful Classical-Revival structure containing stunning examples of colonnades, marble statuettes and a solid Bedford limestone facade. In 1987, a community-sponsored restoration project brought the theater back to its past glory. Photo credit: Marek Enterprise. Text by City of Wausau April 13, 2005 St. Mary's Roman Catholic Oratory of the Immaculate Conception on Grand Ave. in Wausau is a beautiful century-old neo-Gothic church that dates from 1893 and is actually the original mother parish of Wausau. In 1953, a terrible fire destroyed not only the high and side altars but also the complete interior of St. Mary's. The Scholz Family Foundation opened the possibility of bringing to St. Mary's the splendor of the high Gothic architecture achieved by copying exactly three beautiful altars of the Blutenburg chapel in Munich, Bavaria. Work continues to this day in the restoration. Photo credit: Marek Enterprise. Text by the Institute of Christ the King
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Photo credits: Ed Marek, Marek Enterprise Greenville Station, Outagamie County Wisconsin Rapids: Arendt, Peter, Law Offices of Historic buildings make towns unique. "The past is important because the past is responsible for everything we are today. It is our individual collective identity. Today things have changed. Almost every town looks the same. They are no longer unique, unless they have retained some of the historic heritage. It is the uniqueness of the historic buildings that make each place individual." September 29, 2005. We highlight the great things about Wisconsin, which are also things that reflect so well on America --- its people, land, and culture. |
