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Property Location
Property Features
Decorative step gable end with attic round window.
This brick warehouse was constructed for Martin Bekkedal in 1906 to house the tobacco he purchased from the area farmers. In 1893, Martin Bekkedal, a Norwegian immigrant who arrived in America in 1884, went to Vernon county tobacco growers after the buyers had left and purchased unwanted scraps. From this beginning Bekkedal built a tobacco business in Westby and Viroqua based largely on the trust of Norwegian growers. By 1897, he established a tobacco warehouse and accumulated a net worth estimated at two million dollars by the 1920s. Bekkedal went bankrupt in the 1920s and the Tobacco Coop moved into his buildings. In the mid-1880s, there were 616 acres of tobacco grown in Vernon County; and by 1945, there were 7,121 acres. The Bekkedal warehouse no longer functions as a tobacco warehouse.
The Bekkedal warehouse is one of three, brick, well-preserved tobacco warehouses (map codes 41/19 and 41/21) adjacent to one another that contributed to the tobacco industry. Approximately 7 additional tobacco warehouses, of which most are metal covered and now used for other purposes, remain along the old railroad track north of the three brick warehouses.
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
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SE CNR OF N EAST AVE AND W WALNUT ST
72264
Located in Viroqua, Vernon County
HIGHWAY 35, NW CORNER OF WIS 35 AND OTTER ST
72228
Located in Genoa, Vernon County
RAILROAD AVE, E OF THE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, ST PAUL AND PACIFIC TRACKS
72285
Located in Viroqua, Vernon County
