May 17 – Burning Man
A fire, a stout oak beam, a can of ether and two guys.
A nice decorative fire ring.
"Hey, watch this" famous last words!
May 15 – Rival Banks
Winona, MN has a plethora of historic architectural sites. Two of them are the rival banks in town, the Merchants National Bank and the Winona Savings Bank. We made an impromptu tour of both. The current Merchants Bank was built in 1912 in the Prairie School architectural style.
Entry into the Merchants Bank designed by Purcell & Elmslie.
Detail of one of the Merchants Bank stained glass windows.
The original vault of the Merchants Bank.
The Winona Savings Bank was built in 1916 with Egyptian Revival style and Prairie School influences. It also serves as a museum, featuring its architecture, Italian marble, original steel vault, original furniture, and Tiffany stained glass windows. The building also displays the large gun collection and a few dusty African safari trophies of the bank’s original owners.
The palatial entry to the Winona Savings Bank.
Tiffany stained glass above the entry.
The vault, just safety deposit boxes in there!
May 14 – Winona Scenes
A walk around Winona, MN on a beautiful day.
The structure across the street is reflected in the decorative transom over a building’s doorway.
Beautiful woodwork in the Choate Building, a registered national historic building. It was the fancy department store in my Mother’s time, now the building has been renovated into student housing apartments. Pretty fancy compared to my college housing choices!
May 13 – Mother’s Day
We enjoyed a “Mother’s Day Eve” dinner at the Hillside Fish House in Wisconsin. A favorite for batter fried Walleye!
Mother’s Day Brunch was served with beautiful (and edible) orchid blooms!
May 11- Family History
We visited the old family cemetery and found the gravestone of the family patriarch, Wessel Louw. He survived a cross country trip from upstate New York to the wilds of Wisconsin on which his only siblings, 2 brothers, died. He helped his parents establish a farm and eventually saw his own son William off to the Civil War. William survived and with his wife Mary Jane raised a large family. He helped many of his children with home purchases around Winona, MN. One of his sons was my grandfather. On our scenic drive back to Winona we stopped to take in a view and Mavrik met a new friend. Mavrik wasn’t too impressed though, the canine was rather stiff, like cement!
