website watertownhistory.org
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History of Watertown,
Wisconsin
Memorial Park
1939
Police photo taken in Memorial Park, Hartig Brewery
1940s
1940s, Hartig Brewery in background WHS_PC266
More people here are familiar
with the old beer cellars that are located under Memorial Park, which was once
the site of the Fuermann
brewery. After the brewery was
destroyed and remained only a ruin and an eyesore the old cellars came into
partial view and boys playing on the lot used them for hideouts. When the city acquired the property and the
development of the park began one of the first tasks was to fill in the old
passages. A part of the park area caused
trouble for years. A lot of old refuse,
tin cans, etc. had been used to fill in a portion of the place and over the
years a section of it began to cave in.
This caused a great deal of trouble for city and park board officials
and the great memorial arch, which
originally stood at the southwest entrance of the park, had to be repaired and
replaced, as the settling ground caused it to crack and break. After repairs had been made several times and
a portion of the original arch had been removed entirely the entire structure
was torn down and rebuilt at the southeast entrance of the park where it now
stands. That section of the park had
never been used for cellars and consequently provided a better location for
such a heavy structure as the arch.
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Plan to Dismantle City’s
Honor Roll
City Officials and Veterans Groups to Discuss New Records
Watertown Daily Times, 12 18 1946
Plans for the dismantling of the
present World War II honor roll in Memorial Park and working out a system for a
permanent record of men and women who served in the war are to be taken up at a
meeting of a city council committee and representatives of the Pitterle-Beaudoin post of the American Legion, the Beaudoin-Draeger-Koehler post of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Watertown garrison of the Army and Navy
union to be held in the near future.
The present honor roll is to be
torn down completely under the plan. But
what other means will be used to make the records permanent are still to be
worked out.
The honor roll has served its
purpose and has now reached the point where it is deteriorating and must be
done away with if it is not to stand as an eyesore to the community; the city
council was told last night. Some
veterans have already protested the present state of the roll.
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Later: Honor Roll Veteran's wall, along sidewalk by
High School on
1961
11 14 Santa Claus will arrive at
the Watertown Airport next Friday afternoon at 2:20
o’clock, make a quick trip to the recreation building and join the parade which
is scheduled to get underway without delay soon after. It was also announced
that the Candy Stick Palace where Santa will make his headquarters will be
placed in Memorial Park. First plans
were to locate it in Madison Street on the Bank of Watertown parking lot but it
was decided Memorial Park will offer better facilities and that is where it
will go up next week. WDT
1962
02 02 By a vote of 12 to 2 and with no debate whatever, the common council
last night approved Memorial Park as a site for Watertown’s proposed new city
hall, which is to include both fire and police department headquarters. Last night’s approval had been foreshadowed
on Monday when the aldermen held their committee meeting and at which only two
aldermen — Erich E. Nuernberg and Kenneth Wilkes —
indicated they would oppose the plan.
They cast the only two negative votes on the resolution last night, a
resolution which was introduced by Alderman William Wiegand,
the council’s president. WDT
02 154 Alderman Kenneth Wilkes, second ward, remains the only holdout
in the common council on the proposal calling for a new city hall, including
both police and fire department facilities, in Memorial Park. On a roll call vote at last night’s meeting of
the council to engage the services of William Horne, Madison architect, in
preparing the plans and specifications for the proposed building, Wilkes cast
the dissenting lone vote which was 12 to 1, with Alderman Floyd Shaefer absent. The
plans for the new building are expected to be ready for submission at the March
6 meeting of the council. In addition to
giving the go ahead signal to the architect, the council approved a resolution
calling for soil borings in the Memorial Park area to determine construction
factors. WDT
