Big plans for expansion at the college, 63 years ago

In October of 1955, La Crosse State College was about to get $90,000 worth of state funding, to help acquire the county fairgrounds along Campbell Road for campus expansion. Among the buildings planned for the fairgrounds area were a men’s dorm, a field house…eventually known as Mitchell Hall…and the student union, which became Cartwright Center.

Local bakeries were promoting some of their goodies for the fall. The Village Bake Shop made chocolate eclairs, rum cakes, and mince pie. And Harvey’s Bakery advertised lemon torts, date nut bread, and protein bread. Harvey’s had two locations in La Crosse…on Rose Street, and on West Avenue.

Jackie Gleason turned his “Honeymooners” comedy sketches about Ralph and Alice Kramden into a weekly series, seen Saturday nights at 6:30 on Channel 8 in La Crosse. But Gleason still had the June Taylor Dancers from his old variety show on a separate series that led into “The Honeymooners.” The dancers appeared in La Crosse at the new Sawyer Auditorium one Tuesday night in October…not just doing precision dancing, but also playing the banjo and xylophone. How sweet it was, in 1955, yesterday in La Crosse.