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Thursday, December 20, 2018 • Vol. 134, No. 25 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Oregon Public Library
Goal: project budget, plan next spring ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
Courtesy Oregon Area Historical Society/Madsen family
A postcard featuring the Waterfall Motel and Restaurant, which both opened in 1958. F.E. “Steve” Madsen opened them with a business partner in the midst of a 36-year career as Village President.
‘It was a homey place’ ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
It was 1958, the same year the telephone exchange went into service, allowing direct dialing to Brooklyn and Madison, and a year after Sputnik. The Milwaukee Braves were the reigning World Series champs and The Everly Brothers were at the top of the charts. In Oregon, the brainchild of Forest E. “Steve” Madsen and partner John Struck was opening for business, a 15-room motel paired with a 24-hour restaurant along bustling Hwys. 13 and 14, the direct route from Chicago to Minneapolis. Dozens of bouquets of flowers decorated the Waterfall its opening day, Tuesday, July 15, sent by well-wishers and other community businesses. The Wisconsin State Journal was there to document its “large patronage” at all three meals, along with the turquoise walls with oak woodwork accents, the grey and black terrazzo flooring, the formica-topped tables and rose-upholstered chairs. It also noted the air conditioning, which at the time was a novelty. Sixty years later, the village would burn down the motel for a fire department training exercise and the restaurant would be stuffed with pool noodles and sitting for sale on the market.
But for the majority of those intervening years, the Waterfall would serve as the heartbeat of a farming village were coffee klatches were the preferred mode of communication and the kids would look forward to ice cream sundaes and good home cooking at the restaurant where they could watch the lights dance in a small waterfall in the corner. Oregonians who remember the Waterfall all seemed to have pleasant words to describe it, and old news clippings gathered by Madsen’s family and the Oregon Area Historical Society paint a picture straight out of Norman Rockwell’s America. Betty Madsen Cahoon, one of Madsen’s three daughters, was the first manager of the motel and said it was a community gathering place. “Everyone knew everyone,” she said.
Humble beginnings For the first five years, Betty Madsen Cahoon and then her sister Rita Madsen Kluever lived in the motel’s living quarters and were responsible for keeping the place clean and sometimes doing the books. Rooms were $5 for a single, or $6.50 for a double. At least one of the of the rooms was large enough to accommodate a family. Betty remembers one time a group requested a room that “didn’t necessarily need to be cleaned.” The living quarters shared a wall with their room and after hearing suspicious noises, they called Joe Lockwood,
the policeman, who found the group slaughtering chickens in the bathroom. “Oh, what a mess,” Betty recalled with a laugh. Betty and her family moved out in 1961, and her sister moved in to take over. When Rita and her family moved out in April 1963 to become the first homeowners on Madsen Circle, Ruth and Orin Otteson moved in. The Waterfall would remain in their family from 1965 until their daughters Donna and Darlene sold it in 1991. Ruth waitressed there for years.
Trendy, top notch The motel rooms were the height of fashion for the time, no two alike. The WSJ credits Evelyn Mortensen for the interior decorating, who owned a store on Main Street. Her designs included print drapes of trend boucle imported from New York contrasted with color schemes of peach, turquoise and what it called “suntan.” Steve Madsen hung out at the restaurant, keeping the waitresses company late at night so they wouldn’t be alone and talking to the customers. It was his idea, Betty and Rita said, to hire local farm women to be the cooks, so the food was always excellent. Alice Jones was a longtime cook, Mary Schulz a longtime waitress. Going to the Waterfall, JoAnn
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Oregon School District
Good as gold All six OSD schools earn top state health honors SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
When it comes to healthy schools in Wisconsin, you can’t top the Oregon School District. Once again, all six district schools earned “gold” ratings in the 2017-2018 Wisconsin School Health Awards, announced last m o n t h b y t h e Wi s c o n sin Department of Public Instruction. An award ceremony was held Dec. 5 in
Wisconsin Dells. “We commend all of you for taking steps to create a healthier school environment that provides students with the knowledge and skills to make healthy decisions that contribute to their academic success,” read a note on the DPI website. The award covers the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years for Brooklyn, Netherwood and Prairie View elementaries, Rome Corners Intermediate, Oregon Middle School and Oregon High School. OSD director of curriculum and instruction Leslie
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For decades, Waterfall was a social center for Oregon
The campaign for the new library has taken a few steps forward, with the Library Board contracting with a fundraising consultant to pursue the $4 million goal and selecting four firms to interview for preliminary architectural services. By early next summer, or even as early as April, the Library Board is on schedule to have a detailed budget and timeline for the project, as well as a good idea of what the inside and outside of the new building will look like and an update on the space needs the new building will serve, library director Jennifer Way told the Observer. The board will interview architectural firms Dimension IV, Engberg Anderson, OPN and Plunkett Raysich on Jan. 8, and a day later, it
plans to make a recommendation to the Village Board. Way was initially nervous on the day bids were due, she told the Observer, because the library had only received one bid and the Post Office was closed to honor the passing of President George H. W. Bush. But as the day went on, the offers kept trickling in until by day’s end she had 10 to choose from. Opening them was “a little like Christmas morning,” Way said. The four architects that are finalists for the job are responsible for designing many local libraries, including in Verona, Fitchburg, Waunakee and Platteville. The bids range from $27,900 to $46,550. The Library Board selected Baker Street Consulting to help with the fundraising