Take a Historical Walking Tour of Downtown Manitowoc
(Historical walking tour text written in 1988.)
From its earliest days as a pioneer settlement, Manitowoc has viewed its downtown district as the center of commercial and industrial trade for the community. Populated first by simple frame buildings, and later as prosperity grew, by massive brick blocks, the area surrounding 8th Street reflects a community rich in history and civic pride. This tour of the downtown area, highlights buildings noteworthy for their splended and varied architecture or for their place in the growth of this lakeport community. Refer to the tour map for reference.
1. Landing site
The first settlers sent by Chicago land speculator Benjamin Jones landed at the mouth of the Manitowoc River and built a log cabin near this spot in May, 1836. tour map
2. USS Cobia
Launched in 1943 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut, this 312-foot submarine is similar to the 28 U.S. Navy submarines built in Manitowoc during World War II. tour map
3. Dempsey Building---101-108 North 8th Street
Built between 1910-15 by Michael H. Dempsey, the Dempsey block is one of the few commercial buildings in Manitowoc to feature white glazed terra cotta tile as its exterior. The interior displays mosaic-patterned floors in a Classical Greek design. tour map
4. Torrison Building---2 North 8th Street
Built in stages between 1880 and 1890 by general merchant Osuld Torrison, this large building was originally and for many years a department store, occupied in succession by Torrison, Henderson-Hoyt, Boston Store and Johnson Hills. tour map
5. Eighth Street Bridge
The first 8th Street Bridge to span the Manitowoc River was built in 1851. Prior to that an Indian girl ran a ferry service across the river for the cost of one penny. The city erected a row of pilings across the swampy river and those pioneers that were too thrifty to pay the penny could leapfrog across the boards laid across the pilings. tour map
6. Kresge Building---836 South 8th Street
The Kresge Building housed the famous department store from the time of its construction in 1929 until 1986. The store was originally divided in half with a wall separating the 5 and 10 cents store from the 25 cent store. tour map
7. Wood Block---902-908 South 8th Street
The Wood Block was built by pioneer Sam A. Wood in the 1910s following the destruction by fire of a similar store building on the same site in 1901. tour map
8. Henry Berner Hardware Block---901 South 8th Street
This Italianate building, once housing a hardware store in the mid 1800s, is typical of most downtown Manitowoc stores built in the late 1880s: segmented arched hood moldings above the second floor windows, heavy roof cornice supported by paired brackets and yellow brick construction with larger plate glass windows at street level. Built in 1857, this building is the oldest commercial building in the 8th Street Historic District. tour map
9. Fred Schultz House---701 Franklin Street
This small two-story, cream brick, L-shaped house dates from c.1853 and is the oldest remaining building in the 8th Street Historic District. tour map
10. Townhouses
The two-story Ed Zander house at 707 Franklin Street was built in c.1873 and features long, narrow windows on the front facade accented by segmented arched hood moldings with keystones, large overhanging eaves and a bracketed wood cornice. The design is identical to the adjacent August Schmidt house at 709 Franklin Street built in 1877 as two townhouse units. All windows, doorways and architectural details remain intact. tour map
11. Rank Dressmaker's Shop---713 Franklin Street
This small one-story frame building dates from the early 1890s and was once the dressmaking shop of Mrs. Frances Rank, one of several seamstresses in Manitowoc at the turn-of-the-century. tour map
12. Fehrs Jewelry Store---910 South 8th Street
This small two-store brick commercial building was built in 1867 by a German immigrant who opened the first jewelry store in Manitowoc in 1855. The interior features blue and white terra-cotta bas-relief ornamentation on the ceilings and solid mahogany display cases made by his son. tour map
13. Schuette's Department Store---804 Jay Street
Schuette Brothers, founded in a small frame building on this corner by John Schuette in 1848 was the oldest department store in Manitowoc and was one of the oldest retail establishments in Wisconsin until its closing in 1994. During its business days one of its greatest charms was it pneumatic tube system for handling money. tour map
14. Manitowoc Savings Bank---922-930 South 8th Street
The Manitowoc Savings Bank was founded in 1884 by John Schuette, local business and political leader. This building, built in a Neo-Classical style in 1927, was the second home of the bank, replacing an earlier three-story Italianate brick building erected on this corner in 1857 and formerly used as a bank. tour map
15. Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Building---921 South 8th Street
The Odd Fellows Building was built in the latter 1880s in a Romanesque style popular at the time. Its facade, punctuated by shallow bay windows admitted more light into the upper offices. A pavilion featuring Roman arches supported by a relief of clustered columns provides an entryway and a base structure for the corner tower. tour map
16. Manitowoc County Courthouse---1010 S. 8th Street
The Manitowoc County Courthouse was designed by Manitowoc architect Christ H. Tegen and built in 1906. The Beaux Arts, Neo-Classical "Temple of Justice" originally supported a glass dome, permitting light to stream into the interior rotunda. The dome was sheethed with stainless steel in 1948 following a particularly severe hailstorm. tour map
17. Wernecke-Schmitz Hardware Store/Vogelsang and Murphy Undertakers---939 South 8th Street
This large commercial building was constructed in 1894 as two stores with apartments above. Built of cream brick, the original street level featured large plate glass windows and two commercial entrances. Second floor windows have gothic arches with alternating red and cream brick hood moldings capped by red brick keystones. The central panel is highlighted by a single window with brick arch and stone spiked keystone. tour map
18. Buerstatte Drug Store---913 South 8th Street
This two-story cream brick Italianate building was built in 1872 by druggist Frederick C. Buerstatte. Notice the corbelled cornice and the round arch hood moldings over the second floor windows. tour map
19. Ascher's Capitol Theatre---913 South 8th Street
Built as a vaudeville and opulent movie house in 1921, the Capitol features a large, ornate auditorium with seating on the main floor, two balconies and box seats on the side walls and an equally decorative lobby. The theatre, restored in 1987, now serves as the Capitol Civic Centre, an 1169-seat community performing arts center. tour map
20. Wernecke Bakery Building---815 Jay Street
This two-story, red brick commercial building is one of the most decorative in the downtown. Although the first floor has been completely altered, the upper floor remains largely intact with an elaborately carved cornice outlining the shaped gable and a brick arch with wooden spike keystone over 3 windows with straight, cut stone lintels. Built in the mid 1870s by local baker and confectioner William Wernecke, the architectural details of this building are reminescent of the baker's art. tour map
21. Henry Esch & Sons Building-Gasco Block---823 Jay Street
One of the major business blocks built during the 1890s in the downtown area, the Esch building replaced two smaller buildings formerly occupied by the general merchandise firm. The cream brick building originally featured a second floor turret at its northwest corner, balancing what now seems to be the asymmetrical arrangement of the second floor windows. tour map
22. German American Bank---902 Jay Street
This two-story brick building, built in 1901, makes extensive use of cut, rusticated stone for window sills and lintels on the second floor facade. The main entrance is on the rounded corner, canted on the first floor and protected by an arch of stone supported by marble columns on granite bases. tour map
23. Former Manitowoc Municipal Building (City Hall)
Building was razed and converted into surface parking as part of the construction project for the new City Hall which is located at 900 Quay Street.
24. Hamachek-Bleser Company/Auto Dealer Building---822 Franklin Street
This unusually elaborate auto dealership, built entirely of brick, reflects the permanence of the automobile in American society by the year of its construction, 1922. Equipped with such modern features as a large, pavilion-like showroom and expansive show windows, the building also carries the Neo-Classical details such as ornamental Corinthian capitals, surmounted by a decorative entablature, and a balustrade above the street-level windows. tour map
25. Mariners Landing Park---Southwest side of the 8th Street Bridge
This vest-pocket park provides a good vantage point for viewing the river, 8th Street Bridge and 10th Street Bridge (constructed in 1987). An official State of Wisconsin historical marker commemorates the local shipbuilding industry. tour map
Native Americans occupied what is now Manitowoc County since very early times. The French laid claim to this land, however, in the seventeenth century. They then passed it to Great Britain in 1763 as a result of the Seven Years' War. In 1789, it was made a part of the Northwest Territory; in 1809, of Illinois Territory; and in 1818 it was attached to Michigan Territory. On April 20, 1836, it was included in Wisconsin Territory.
