September 1941 — Building No. 1

On Wednesday, September 17, 1941, the city advertised for bids, in the Legal Notices, under a heading that would have been worth reading twice on the north side.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Branch Public Library Building No. 1 La Crosse, Wisconsin

For thirty-six years the north side had come second — second to the main library, and tied to the south branch so it could not go first. On the contract documents it is Building No. 1.

Sealed bids would be received until two in the afternoon on the first of October, at the office of the City Clerk in City Hall, and opened there and read aloud. There were two contracts: general construction, and equipment. Bidders had to put up a bond for the whole of their maximum bid, or a certified check for five percent of it.

And in the fourth paragraph, the sentence that gives this building its architects.

Plans and specifications are on file at the office of Nelson & Fuchs, 115 S. 4th St., La Crosse, where they may be examined.

Ten dollars a set, refunded if the drawings came back in good condition before the twelfth of October.

The notice was signed twice: F. L. Kramer, City Clerk — the same clerk who had been sent to the bond attorneys in February, who had published the ballot in March — and J. J. Verchota, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library.