DOWNTOWN! Part Deux

North Main Street : The Other Side

Okay, we've covered the east side of North Main Street from Walgreens down to East Sherman Avenue. In case you missed it, click here: Downtown Part One. Now we're going to cross the street and look at the west side of North Main Street from Madison Avenue down to West Sherman Avenue.

Recognize this view? No? Roll your mouse over the photo to see what this view looks like today... go ahead.

The Lucien B Caswell Mansion
Where Walgreen's is now.

The above photo is an old tinted postcard from the early twentieth century. (Basically they only tinted the sky, but hey, postcards were only a penny back then. Whattaya want?) Anyway, the buildings shown are on the corner of N Main St and Madison Ave. Residents of a certain age would probably remember Gas Hut and Pizza Hut in place of those buildings, which are actually part of the old Cornish, Curtis and Greene factory complex. (Later to be known as The Creamery Package Company.) Imagine the photographer of this postcard standing in the parking lot of what is now Walgreen's, across the street from Good Year Tires, looking southwest. (Back then the photographer would have been standing on the side lawn of the Lucien B Caswell mansion, shown left.) Now imagine if the three story building in the middle left of the above photo was our very own McDonald's and anything beyond that was the Verlo Mattress Factory building. Better yet, roll your mouse over the image and you don't have to imagine any of this at all. Ah, the magic of the InterWeb.

Here's another view of the same complex of buildings, this time looking North. 
 Roll your mouse over the photo to see today's view.

The above photo shows the west side of N Main St, looking north. These are the same buildings shown in the top photo, as part of the huge Cornish, Curtis and Greene complex of factories that dominated the north end of town through the turn of the century. The farthest building in the photo above stands on the corner of N Main and Madison Ave. Today it is a vacant lot usually with a Verlo truck parked in it. Rollover this image to see the current view. (You won't see the Verlo truck. Not from this angle.)

Now, for those who are too young to remember the Cornish, Curtis and Greene Co. -- and that's probably everyone, since it ceased to exist around 1898 when it was bought by a Chicago firm called Creamery Package Company (here is a brief history courtesy of the Hoard Museum Website: Cornish, Curtis and Greene a.k.a Creamery Package Co.) -- basically the entire 200 block of N Main and part of the 100 block was all dedicated to the Cornish, Curtis and Greene/Creamery Package Company. They were manufacturers of dairy and farm equipment, including their own invention, a rectangular hand cranked butter churn, back in the late 1800s which revolutionized the dairy industry (see ad below).

1890s advertisement for Cornish Curtis & Greene dairy manufacturers

M. Levy's Dry Goods Store, where The Verlo Mattress Factory is now.

Actually, there was one building on the opposite end of the block at the turn of the century -- on the spot that is now the Creamery Package Building (Verlo) -- that was not originally part of Cornish, Curtis and Greene. It was a dry goods store on the northwest corner of N Main and W Sherman (back then it was known as Germany Street). This was M. Levy's Boston Bazaar (shown at right). That building came down in the 20s when they built the 5-Story Creamery Package Building.

The Creamery Package Company incorporates the Cornish, Curtis and Greene buildings into its operation, 1920s

Ah, now it's starting to look a little more recognizable (above) with the addition of the iconic Creamery Package Building, built in the 1920s. The Creamery Package Co was a Chicago-based outfit that bought Cornish, Curtis and Greene and incorporated their business and its Main Street buildings into its new Fort Atkinson operation. This was and remains the only 5-story building on Main Street in Fort Atkinson.

The buildings of Cornish, Curtis and Greene remained standing thru the 1960s and part of the 70s

"Hey Charlie! We just got a big siding contract!"

The Creamery Package Building was home to many companies throughout the years: The St Regis Paper Company, Badger Mills, The Hartel Corporation, VyMaC to name a few. In the 1970s, the older buildings of the Cornish, Curtis and Greene Co were razed and the arrival of McDonald's, Gas Hut, and Pizza Hut brought Fort into the fast-food and drive-through era. (I know, we already had Heth's and Mr Quick Drive Thru's, but a town becomes a real city when it has a McDonald's!) For awhile the Creamery Package Building stood vacant and fell into disrepair. At one point there were so many broken windows along its south side, the entire building was covered in aluminum siding (see left). It was through the efforts of the VyMaC Corporation and its then-president, the late David Young, that the 5-story "skyscraper" was brought back to life in the early years of the 21st century. Learn about the history and refurbishment of Fort Atkinson's only "skyscraper" at the excellent VyMaC site: http://www.creamerybuilding.com.

Today

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