124 E COOK

124 E COOK

Columbia

Portage

1916

1992

large retail building

Commercial Vernacular

Brick

Brick

No

Stepped parapet with pediment; name block: "Wauona Lodge No. 132"; segmental arch window lintels; major window with label I00F or Independent Order of Odd Fellows; brick corbeling between floors; first floor store front altered.)

The name block identifies the building's second floor as the I00F hall.
The building was Marachowsky's furniture and department store from the late 1930s. He moved to a new building to the east in the 1940s (Eulberg 1993).

After construction between 1915 and 1918, the building at 124 E. Cook contained the farm implement dealership of Henry A. Schultz until approximately 1925. By 1929, the Schaefer and Meyer Hardware had replaced the implement dealer. By 1937 through 1955, Protage Super Creamed Ice Cream occupied one half of the building. The Christian Scientist held services in the I00F Hall from its construction until the building of their church in 1933 and established a reading room at least during 1929 (Portage Public Library n.d. [undated history]; Milwaukee Journal 1/7/1934; Register Democrat 1/25/1934.

The first Portage Lodge No. 61 formed in 1854 and was dominated by German speakingmembers and its English speaking members gradually withdrew. The lodge reorganized in 1862 as an english speaking organization. Waunona Lodge No. 132 of the Odd Fellows became formally organized in 1867. In 1868, the German lodge consolidted with this group. Wauona Lodge No. 132 eventually absorbed the Decorah Lodge of Poynette and the Dells Lodge in 1953. By 1868, the organization contained 75 members, and it hoste dthe state assembly meeting in 1869. This group occupied the hall above the Pettibone Block at the southwest corner of DeWitt and Cook for an unknown period prior to 1880. After the building burned, the Odd Fellows received a new charter in 1881. After moving to the Temple Hall of Honor, the Odd Fellows rented the hall above the Haertel or Eulberg Block (139 W. Cook, 56/26) in 1881. By 1908, the organization had relocated in the hall above the First National Bank (102 W. Cook 25/21). The Odd Fellows purchased 124 E. Cook in 1916 and replaced and dedicated the building in 1916. The new hall included a club room, kitchen, dining room, and main hall. They rented the first floor retail area and held their meetings on the second floor. Numerous other city organizations also used the hall. The Odd Fellows organized Rebekah Lodge No. 106 in 1893.. Portage Odd Fellows joined a high branch of their order known as the Excelsior Encampment about 1869 and in 1876 a small group from the Odd Fellows organized the Portage Battalion of uniformed Patriarchs (Portage Daily Register 1908 [4/`6: 3/11]; 7/2/1952: 8; 7/15/1967; Register Democrat 12/20/1916; 2/25/1948; 1/22/1954; Butterfield 1880: 659; Jones 1914 {1}: 221-22).

Sanborn-Perris Map Co. 1929: store with hall on second floor 1918: agricultural impelemtns and hall on second 1910: implements, no hall noted 1901: agricultural implements 1894: building not there Columbia Co. Treasurer 1863- 1920-1930: Wauona Lodge #132 1893-1915: P.S. Hollenbeck Est. According o the alteration in valuations, the first building was erected in 1895-96. The building was replaced in 1916 (see references below). Directories (124) 1955: (124) Portage Super Creamed Ice Cream (1/2); Odd Fellows' Hall (Johnson Printing Co.) 1948, 1937: (124) Portage Super Creamed Ice Cream (Commonwealth Telephone Co.) 1929: (124) Schaefer and Meyer Hardware; I00F. Hall second also Christian Science Church (Smith-Baumann) 1924-25 to 1919-20: Schultz, Henry A., agricultural implements (R.L. Polk & Co.) 1910: (124) H.A. Schultz, agricultural implements (Voshardt) 1908-09: (134-126) Staudenmayer and Metcalf, agricultural implements (S.H. Moore) 1905-06: Staudenmayer and Blume (John and John) farm implements (R.L. Polk & Co.) 1903-04: not listed Historic Portage, WI: Downtown & Waterfront Walking Tour, 1995.

Portage Retail Historic District

Apr 27, 1995

Oct 24, 1994

Yes