The Old Gage Place Soon To Be Razed

This house at 622 Sumner Street in La Crosse is slated for razing and will soon be a thing of the past, joining a long list of other bygone houses and buildings in the city. This photo shows the house’s original wood lap siding following removal of gray fiber panel siding which had adorned the house in more recent years. The house was located in an industrial section of town and faced a bulk fuel oil yard, hardly an attractive or desirable section of town. Out of curiosity I checked my collection of old city directories to see who lived in the house years ago and discovered that it was home to William and/or Mary Gage and their children from about 1900 to 1950. Using the La Crosse Public Library’s handy obituary index I was able to locate both William’s and Mary’s obits. According to William’s notice in the August 22, 1922, La Crosse Tribune, he died in this house at age 61 following a prolonged illness. He was born in Sauk County, Wisconsin, and settled on La Crosse’s North Side as a young man. He was an engineer in the Davidson Sawmill, was a millwright in the La Crosse Plow Works and also worked as an engineer at the La Crosse Rubber Mills. For many years he was also a fireman in both the volunteer company in North La Crosse and also in the paid department. He is buried in the family lot at the cemetery in Hustler, Wis. Following her husband’s death, Mary continued to live in the house (with some of their five children) until her death there at age 83 on January 28, 1950. Her obituary was very brief and said little about her life, other than that she was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary.