Decision today whether 19th century La Crosse building becomes parking lot

Commission to decide on whether to grant historic designation 

A parking lot or a building with historic designation.

That’s the decision La Crosse’s Historic Preservation Commission will make today on whether a long-vacant, 19th-century building in La Crosse comes down. 

The commission will consider the historic designation of the 3rd St. building that sports the War Eagle mural.

It’s not much to look at and it’s not the most glamorous of the historic buildings in La Crosse, concedes Tim Acklin in the city’s planning office. But it still may have merit.

“Part of the argument was the fact that this was one of those traditional “business down below, family who ran the business lived up above,” type building,” Acklin said. “And those, you don’t have many of left in La Crosse – when it’s a two-story building like that.”

Pischke Motors wants to turn the building – originally the Wenzel Schubert Meat Market – into a parking lot, unless the commission intervenes.

Acklin recognizes that a historic designation might not seem as obvious, compared to other buildings in the city.

Comparing it to some of those other buildings, it’s probably not,” Acklin admitted. “But, does it have its important place in history of La Crosse, because of what used to go there, how it was used, things of that nature? It might.”

The building has been vacant for 15 years and Acklin concedes it isn’t in an ideal location.

“It does have some challenges obviously, because there’s not much around it,” Acklin said. “It’s in between the two bridges, so it does face some challenges in that nature.

If it was saved, what kind of viability would a business have there? That’s a good question.

“I think we’ve seen, too, though, that anything can be saved, can be repurposed into something. There’s always somebody who has a vision.”

The building has also been the home of a box company, a brewer and an electric motor company. It dates back possibly to the 1860s.