A Horse Tale

When passing by Bakalars Sausage Co. at 2219 South Ave. in La Crosse, some sharp-eyed people may have noticed a marred emblem located behind the firm's sign (see photos). What is/was it? It's all that is left of a plaster relief of a horse's head . . . part of the building's decoration when it was built in 1902 as a horse stable for La Crosse's Gund Brewery. When Bakalars purchased the building in late 1961 they chiseled the horse head off (leaving just part of the mane which still can be seen) because they didn't want their customers thinking that the firm sold horse meat. Maybe it's just me but but it's too bad Bakalars could not have been more classy and covered the horse's head up in some tasteful way instead of chiseling it off in a half-ass manner and leaving a scar behind. In protest, I have never spent one penny at Bakalars . . . though that's not hard to do since I'm a vegetarian. Ha!

Remodeling Eyesore

I cringe every time I ride by this building on La Crosse's North Side and see the botched-up method of using concrete blocks to fill in old window spaces. I bet the architect and contractors who worked on this building in 1887 are spinning in their graves over this crappy remodeling job. Shameful! Anything would have been better than concrete blocks . . . even painted plywood or leaving the old windows in with painted plywood behind the glass. Another solution would have been to use matching brick to fill the spaces but I suppose that was too costly to consider for the cheapskate/tasteless person who had this work done. And check out that door in the top photo, by its weathered, beat-up appearance it appears to be an interior door used as an exterior door. Crazy! There, I've done my rant for today and feel so much better.