LACROSSE, Wis. – Nobody can say for sure when the corner brick building at the foot of today’s Cameron Street bridge was built. Maybe the 1870s? Earlier? It’s being torn down after being the butt of dozens of car accidents since Cameron and Third became the off-ramp for the bridge in 2005. It’s had lots of tenants. There was the Joh Stanek shop. Then it was the Haller grocery. For 75 years it was Niebuhr Plumbing and Heating. The family lived upstairs. It’s become shabby in recent years with a series of short-term tenants and decrepit from being bumped and bruised so many times by wayward automobiles. Elizabeth Niebuhr-Bailey, who grew up in the building, said in a WXOW television interview that she hopes to salvage a piece of marble that’s broken off the front and some bricks for a fireplace and mantle.
601 South Third Street. Classy in its era.
Thump after thump. Structural integrity weakened.