City of Delavan Would Provide Labor for the Project
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DELAVAN CITY HALL You are looking at the City Hall in Delavan. It is located on Second Street. This building was erected in 1967. In 1999 a large addition doubled the size of this building. Prior to 1888 most of the communities’ businesses took place in the elected official’s homes. In 1887 the village board decided to build a fire and police station with a second story meeting hall. This building still exists at 126 E. Walworth Street. January 17, 1888 was the first meeting of the village board at this location. The city offices were moved to 111 N. Third Street in 1961. Six years later it moved to its present location. Delavan was founded as a temperance/abolition colony in 1836; it was named by Col. Franklin Phoenix for Edward C. Delavan, a former president of the New York Temperance Society. Our state’s first temperance and antislavery conventions were held at Delavan. According to the 1882 History of Walworth County, in 1846, the village of Delavan had six blacksmiths, two wheelwrights, two saddle and harness makers, one sash-maker, nine carpenters and joiners, one fanning-mill shop, two painters, two cabinet makers, nine boot and shoe makers, two tailors, three physicians, fine lawyers, two land surveyors, six dry-goods stores, two groceries, one tavern, one plow factory, five ministers and 43 houses. The population listed 63 families with 400 people. In addition there were two schools, one common and one select (private) and two temperance societies. About three-fourths of the adults belonged to those societies. In 1855, Delavan was officially incorporated into a village. The first President was Leonard E. Downie. That first election was held at Model Ts Hall on April 29, 1856. Two hundred and two votes were cast. In addition to the President the following were also elected: Trustees: William C. Allen, James Aram, E. F. Mabie, T. D. Thomas, J. D. Monell, Jr., and Willard Isham; Clerk: James Lewis; Treasurer: Newton McGraw; Assessors: N. M. Harrington and E. Latimer and Marshall: Nicholas Thome. Delavan gained fame for being the nation's 19th century circus Capitol. Twenty six circuses wintered in Delavan between 1847 and 1894. Delavan became a city on May 28, 1897. The first mayor of the city was Edward F. Williams. Until 1 1902 the term of office was one year. At that time it was changed to two years. The second mayor was Alexander H. Allyn. In 1900 the population of the city was 2,244. ARAM PUBLIC LIBRARY You are looking at the original entrance to the Aram Public Library. It is located at 404 E. Walworth Street in Delavan. In 1885 during the early beginnings of Delavan, a library was begun under the Caxton plan. One hundred people paid $1 a year for two years and 200 books were provided by the Caxton Library Company of Chicago. The books were stored at local businesses. In 1886, the Delavan Library Association was formed with Adele Barnes as president. Members paid $1 plus 50 cents a year thereafter. Rental fees for the books were 5 cents for one week, 25 cents for 3 months, and 50 cents for six months. In 1889 the Delavan Lake Library Association was formed at the "Villa Clare" home of Mrs. P. R. King. She donated over 500 volumes which were available for loan by any lake residents at no cost. In 1897 James Aram gave a bequest of $15,000. $5000 was added to this endowment to be effective on the death of Mrs. Aram, which occurred in 1905. In anticipation of a future library, in 1899 the Delavan Library and Literary Association was begun. By 1901, the Association had gathered 466 volumes and had rented a reading room for $8 a month. The Association selected the site. Fourth Street and Walworth Street, at a meeting held March 28, 1906 at the Citizen's Bank. Mr. Alexander H. Allyn was elected chairman of the Delavan Library Commission and he contributed $5000 on the condition that local citizens would contribute a like amount. $3800 was donated by November, 1906. Then Jay J. Phoenix pledged $500 and the remainder was soon accumulated. The library which cost $22,800 was dedicated in 1908. According to a local historian Mr. Allyn and his estate contributed about the same amount of money to the library as Mr. Aram. The library opened with 2300 volumes, including 686 from the old library. In its first year of operation about 20,000 volumes were circulated. Miss Laura F. Angelí was the first librarian serving from 1908 to 1913. Alexander H. Allyn served as the first president of the Library Board. Several years ago an expansion program was completed which doubled the original size of the building. A genealogy library is located in the basement of this library. It is open on Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. This collection includes an inventory of most of the cemeteries in the county. The library has an extensive collection of Indian arrowheads and pictures related to the city's 2 history and artists who lived here. [This library is now housed at the Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn.] DELAVAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUILDING You are looking at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Delavan on the SE corner of Walworth and Terrace Streets. At one time it was also the Delavan Art and History Museum. It was built in 1841 as Delavan’s General Store. Later, it became the Delavan Post Office. This is the oldest brick building in Delavan. Adolph Schulz, internationally known artist, lived next door. His house was built in 1894. Schulz trained at the Chicago Art Institute and he convinced the institute to hold sketching classes in Delavan during the summers around the turn of the century. His wife, Ada, was a well known artist in her own right. Her first trip to Delavan was part of the Art Institute's summer program in 1892. It was during this session that she met her husband, who was a Delavan native. They were married on September 5, 1894 by Dr. Joseph Collie, pastor of the Delavan Congregational Church. Their paintings are in the permanent collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chicago Art Institute. They were the impetus for an art colony in Delavan beginning in the 1890's. Other artists of the area included Frank Phoenix, William F. Tower, Stella Fiske, Florence Jones Davies, and Frank Virgil Dudley. Schulz enjoyed painting pastoral scenes but did not like the large numbers of cows (and especially what they left behind) so he moved to Nashville, Indiana in 1919 where they formed a new art colony. In 1976, another group of artists, under the leadership of Richard Alexander, W. Gordon Yadon and Andrew Cabrera formed the DAM (Delavan Art Museum) Artists Group. Their task was to renovate this historic building into an art museum. For two years, an art show was held every two weeks. After two years, the building was sold to the Chamber of Commerce. DELAVAN POST OFFICE The Delavan Post Office is located diagonally across the street from the Aram Public Library. The first post office was established in 1837 with Wm. Phoenix as postmaster. Mail came semi-weekly 3 from Racine. The post office was in Phoenix’s log home/store located at what is now the southwest corner of Walworth Ave. and Terrace St. Later post offices were located in the current Chamber of Commerce Building and then in a building just east of the intersection of 2nd and Walworth (an area now covered by the west end of the Delavan Hotel). In 1901 Adele Barnes was the Postmistress. In 1902 Delavan had two rural mail delivery routes. The 23 and 24 mile routes were covered by horse and buggy except during the winter when snow covered roads required the use of a sleigh and horse. Construction of the current building began in 1914. According to an article in the December 16, 1915 Delavan Republican the new post office began occupancy the first of the week. Charles M. Talhnan was postmaster at this time. Oscar Wenderof was the architect; Northern Construction Co. of Milwaukee had the low bid. A grand opening ceremony was planned but it never was held. The workmen were still putting on the finishing touches on December 12, 1915, the planned day of celebration. All of the new equipment had not arrived and the rush of Christmas made time very valuable. In July, 1922 it became a 1st class Post Office. At the time it was the smallest of Wisconsin’s 25 - 1st class Post Offices. In order to have that classification the office had to do $40,000 worth of stamps and paper business annually. Prior to 1948, the postmaster changed according to the administration in Washington, D. C. President Harry S. Truman changed that policy and the position became more permanent. Stop in to see the mural depicting Delavan history. It was done in 1984 by Rosemary Roth, a local artist. She also did a mural in the Chamber of Commerce building in 1986. In 2001 the Post Office was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. CLOWN AND ELEPHANT STATUE You are looking at the statue of a clown and elephant which is located in Tower Park in Delavan on the west end of Walworth Street. The statue was erected by the Delavan Historical Preservation Society and Cousin Otto's Clown Alley #22 on July 23, 1985. Tower Park, complete with circus statuary, at different times was known as Avenue Park and Haymarket Square.