June 20, 1941 — Three houses

On Friday, June 20 the Tribune did something better than argue. It sent a photographer out and printed the three places under discussion, side by side, so that the city could see what it was deciding between.

Top left, the privately owned property in the Logan high school block. Lower left, the Bollrud and Robinson-Iverson lots at the southwest corner of Avon and Sill. And on the right, the Briebach property on the corner of Gillette and Kane.

That last photograph is a house, with a porch, and a tree in the yard, and a sidewalk running past it. It is the only picture we have of what stood at 1552 Kane Street before the library did.

The caption set out plainly what the council had done the previous Friday: selected the site at the extreme right by an 11 to 9 vote, and then lost it to an error in the tabulation. A few minutes later it had voted 12 to 8 for the site at lower left, and rescinded that in the squabble which followed. No date had been set for a definite selection.

By a large vote in April, the caption reminded readers, the people of La Crosse had approved both branches. The south side's site had been condemned by the city, but legal entanglements were keeping it from taking title at 16th and Farnum. The council had shown by its actions that it meant to build the north branch that year, and the mayor had urged immediate action in his inaugural address.