Wanting more room for the courthouse, 58 years ago

In 1960, the La Crosse County Board voted overwhelmingly to construct a “safety building” on the courthouse block, to give law enforcement a little more room.  They hadn’t decided whether to attach the new building to the 60-year-old courthouse.  Within a few years, the plan would be moot.  By 1965, the county built an entirely new courthouse, which in 2018 is being converted to a housing complex called the Hub.  The Belle Square development now stands where the previous courthouse was.

They didn’t talk of “political correctness” in 1960, when the La Crosse State College sports teams still were known as the Indians.  During Homecoming on campus that year, the winner of a dorm decoration contest was Wilder Hall, which had a tomahawk-wielding Indian at the front door, and signs saying “Scalp ’em pronto, Tonto!”

If you watched daytime TV in early 1960, some classic game shows could be seen five days a week.  The original version of “The Price Is Right” was hosted by Bill Cullen.  Bob Barker was hosting “Truth or Consequences.”  Hugh Downs was in charge of “Concentration.”  Merv Griffin starred on “Play Your Hunch,” and you could see Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon on “Who Do You Trust?”  Fifty-eight years ago, 1960, yesterday in La Crosse.