Remember Westby in 1910?

By Margaret Gulsvig on 10-28-93

This aging post card, belonging to Raymond Rude, is a 1910 view of Westby’s Main Street, looking south.

Identification of the buildings was done by Ray’s Uncle P.N (Polly Rude who was 13 year old at the time but has a remarkable memory of who was where and also the changes that have taken place in subsequent years.)

Starting in the near right is Bekkedal Bank Building, now the Westby Coon Valley State Bank. The two men deep in discussion were standing outside a section of the building that served as post office, then a jewelry store, a phonograph shop and a barber shop in that order.

The tailor shop on the sign was upstairs. An opera house, used for movies, dances and programs was on the second story over the front part of the bank. The Opera House Café was located in the basement.

Across the street, going south was a one-story building occupied at that time by Stevlingson and Call who sold general merchandise and groceries.

            Next to this was the Nerison – Flugstad hardware store. When the corner store sold out their business Flugstads purchased it, enlarging their hardware business. A second story was added and today it is the Dregne Building.

Between Dregne’s and the refurbished CBC building, a variety of changes have occurred but at the time of this picture, a bandstand occupied a vacant area. The CBC building began as the Evans Hotel and was also Westby’s Bowling Alley in the forties.

            Gone today is the T.J. Thorson building, a theater and the Farmers Alliance Store, all of which bit the dust at various times to make room for the now empty Market Square Building.

            Anton Olson, whose name can still be seen on all the older sidewalks of Westby, also had a small shop along here, where he made cement blocks. There was also a Livery Barn where salesmen who came to Westby by train could rent horse and buggy, or cutter, to make sales trips to Avalanche and Bloomingdale.

            On the next corner a private residence had boarding facilities for travelers and teachers. Between this house and Our Savior’s Church was the large Thorsgaard house, now occupied by the Dale Pedretti family. The church with its tall spires was moved to make room for the present building. The old church was moved to Bekkedal Avenue and is used today as a feed store.

            On the left of the picture, the first building was a tin shop, where shields for furnace were made. The tower building across the street was built by Andrew H. Dahl Company who sold merchandise before moving to another site and starting a car agency. (Dahl Motors in LaCrosse had their roots in Westby.) The upstairs of this building housed lawyer offices and the tower was the office of Dr. Christianson, who today is also credited with starting Westby’s American Legion. The tower and upper floor was destroyed by Westby’s worst fires in the mid-sixties.

            The rest of this block has seen many changes, including a fire which destroyed the Hagen grocery store, the space now occupied by Country Collectables. The large corner building at the far end was first a furniture store and mortuary as well as a meat market and the first home of the Westby Times. Westby’s first bank, started by Bekkedal, was also in this building until moved to the present site on the corner of State and Main Streets.  

             The last business block contained E.T. Borgen’s restaurant now the corner of Hanson and Gaskell Law Offices, and the large brick building build by Art Hegge, which has housed a variety of businesses since the demise of Hegge’s Implement.

            Westby’s first school stood in the middle of the tree-lined block on the far left.

            Times change, memories fade. Today recording the changes is in keeping, with new emphasis on the new Historical Society venture.

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