North Fond du Lac Historical Society

Railroad Hall

1201 Wisconsin Ave

People involved with the railroad in North Fond du Lac held social events such as meetings, dances and parties in the upper floor of the building on the northwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Broadway Street, called Railroad Hall. Some of the groups that met there included the L. A. to the B. of R. T., the Modern Woodmen, the Northwestern Brotherhood, the Soo Line Brotherhood and the North Fond du Lac Choral Society.

The downstairs housed various businesses over the years, including the Kingbury-Grassey grocery store, the Blackbird General Store and Meat Market (operated by Joseph Blackbird beginning in 1910), Ziebell's TV, and the North Side Food Shop, first operated by Alfred E and Mildred Ziebell and later by Mr. and Mrs. Francis Willis. The original building, built in 1899, was razed and rebuilt while the Ziebell's owned it, in 1949 or 1950.

Keystone Hall

705-707 Wisconsin Ave

The first floor of Keystone Hall housed a number of businesses through the years including J. C. Grassy Groceries around 1913, Mark's Food Villa in the late 1960s and G & W Furniture in late 1971. One of the longest-running businesses in the building was William "Bill" Dupies' IGA Supermarket which operated there for 34 years. He sold it to his nephew, Mark Uzelac, who was the proprietor of Mark's Food Villa.

School classes were held in the upstairs until 1909, when the last class of sixteen students graduated from Keystone Hall.

Classmates included:

Roderick Oliver Amenson, Olive Sarah Bay, Frank Victor Birch, Wilbur George Blackbird, Arthur Blaney, Henry Vincent Burchill, Helen Foulke, Frank Valentine Harnacker, Eva Maud Higgins, Martha Elizabeth Longua, Lyle Neil Miller, Agnes Elizabeth O'Rourke, Edith Alice Schultz, Lorene Marie Touchette, Callie Welch, and Harry Edwin Wenzel.

Other organizations used the upper level for social events such as dances and meetings, and Community United Methodist Church initially met there prior to its establishment at 701 Minnesota Avenue in November of 1902.

In July of 1971 a sign attached to the building fell, bringing down the "top one-third of the front of the structure". No cause was determined, although a recent storm or age of the building was suspected. Keystone Hall was built in 1895.

The building is now a private residence.

Hurricane Restaurant

726 Wisconsin Ave

Home to one of the village's few tornado shelters, the building at 726 Wisconsin Avenue has housed a number of restaurants over the years. In May of 1960, Happy's, which was formerly located at 6th and Main in Fond du Lac, moved to North Fond du Lac and opened as the Hurricane Restaurant. The Hurricane was moderately damaged by fire in August of 1966, but rebounded quickly. The Hurricane Restaurant was a popular destination for about twenty years before it became known as Grandma's Kitchen.

Pauline Runge purchased the business in January of 2003, renaming it the Cookstove Café, and in April of 2004, Dana and Sandy Sechler assumed ownership. For a couple years, beginning in early 2006, the restaurant was known as the North Fond du Lac Family Restaurant under the management of Alfredo Salazar. It recently reopened as the Cookstove Café, and Dana Sechler hired Eddie Antkowiak, best known locally as "Boxcar Eddie" (of the popular "Boxcar Eddie's" pizza place) to manage the restaurant.

Yellowstone Garage

602 Minnesota Ave

The Yellowstone Garage, built in 1920 and originally operated by Joe Braun, Frank Herman and D. Bosin, was located on the Yellowstone Trail, the first transcontinental automobile highway in the United States that runs "from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound". The trail was marked by yellow signs, and the Yellowstone Garage in North Fond du Lac was one of the last places to retain an original trail marker.

The garage changed hands several times before April 1949 when James Mowbray purchased the business. He ran Mowbray's Yellowstone Garage for years until he was offered a full-time teaching job in 1966 at Fond du Lac Vocational School (later Moraine Park Technical College). The garage closed after nearly 50 years in business when Mr. Mowbray began passing along his auto mechanics knowledge to students (although he had already taught many "students" over the years in his employ).

Yellowstone Garage didn't stay closed long. It soon reopened by "Butch" Schraven as Schraven's Yellowstone Auto Garage. Later the building was purchased by Orville Jeager, who operated Ironsides Battery Co. out of the building and more recently leased the property to Northern Battery.

If you are interested in learning more about the history of the Yellowstone Garage, the North Fond du Lac Historical Society has copies of a booklet detailing the history of the Yellowstone Garage, as written by Mark Mowbray, son of James Mowbray, available for sale in our website store.