Appleton Historical Society's recently purchased property at 231 W. Franklin St. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Appleton Historical Society will soon have a new roof over its head.
The organization has finalized the purchase of a building in Appleton that has some history of its own.
Currently located at 128 North Durkee Street, the Appleton Historical Society’s new home will be 231 West Franklin Street. The structure was built in 1931 as a funeral home.
Most recently, it housed Sitzmann Law Firm before the keys were handed to the Appleton Historical Society.
“When we were looking for buildings in the first place, back in 2016, there wasn’t an iconic railroad depot, or church, or a building that would lend itself to historic preservation and a historic museum,” said Tom Sutter, Appleton Historical Society president. “This building fits that in all ways.”
While not officially registered as a historical landmark in Appleton, Sutter says they want to preserve the building and tell its story.
“Wichmann Funeral Home from 1931 to 1959, and then Alex’s Crown Restaurant was here for a number of years, the finest restaurant in Appleton. And then there were a number of different restaurants,” said Sutter.
Chris Sitzmann sold the property to the historical society after owning the building for 17 years. Sitzmann says he wasn’t initially planning to sell, until the historical society approached him about buying the property after hearing through the grapevine that he was considering retiring from practicing law.
“I had talked to my accountant and they said, ‘Well, your best bet if you’re going to sell it is probably to sell it to some developer who’s going to tear it down and put a big apartment complex up’ and I didn’t want that,” said Sitzmann.
The new property is more than double the size of the Historical Society’s current home. That means more room for more displays to showcase Appleton.
“For example, there’s an Air Wisconsin display, and there’s also a Presto products display at our museum. This will allow us to have more of those different topics,” said Sutter.
The Appleton Historical Society says it will continue to operate out of its current location for the time being. They expect work at the building on W. Franklin, like installing an elevator, to take at least six months to complete.
Once they are moved into their new building, the historical society says they will eventually sell their property on N. Durkee. Money from that future sale will then go to an endowment.
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