Recently I was contacted by a writer, Tim Langton, regarding one of our favorite historic sites in Monroe. He was working on a statewide expose of historic water towers and had been referred to our very own Lincoln Park Water Tower. As part of the article. the Lincoln Park Water Tower was planned to be featured in a contest of the best historic water towers in Wisconsin. Of course, this excited me, so I made a couple calls to the city and they located one of the most colorful photos of the Lincoln Park Water tower that Brenda Steurer had captured for the City.
I am not the best versed in the history of the water tower, but I do remember that when my family first moved here, we lived near the park and the kids loved to play there and run around the tower in very aggressive games of hide and seek. Thankfully, you don’t need to rely on me to be town historian. The Green County Historical Society has created a wonderful time line regarding the tower on their website. I would highly suggest a review to see the significance it has. In recent decades, there has been extensive efforts to preserve and restore the tower through dedication of John and Donna Glynn, the historical society, their volunteers, the city of Monroe, and public support, the tower was rededicated in 2019. It seems like it was “just yesterday” but after a year of staying in isolation, everything seems like it was “just yesterday.”
As luck would have it, this morning as I just started my monthly article, I receive an email from the writer behind the focus on the Historic Water Towers in Wisconsin. The article was published and along with it a poll to vote on your favorite water tower, a head-to-head challenge to get the most votes to get passed round one is underway.
So “splashing” social media with the water tower voting poll was fun and could not have come at a better time. This blended so well with my planned topic, our “Greetings From Monroe” mural. The tower is prominently featured in the mural as one of our City’s unique points of interest.
Announcing our project for the mural during the 2020 Annual Dinner last year we had very high expectations that by Cheeses Days 2020 we would be have created an amazing tourist hot spot that would be a perfect back drop for families, class reunions and tour bus group to gather for photos. People can sit, relax and identify all the landmarks in the mural. The mural also works as a guide to encourage the exploration of Monroe though it’s points of interest and natural amenities.
COVID 19 had different plans. It did not take a lot of debating to realize funding on our project was the least of our priorities as we faced an uncertain future. At the same time, we realized the importance of our message, so the project was broken in to two phases. Phase one was the creation of the physical mural. We were able to complete this in August of 2020.
We plan to launch our second phase efforts to highlight the importance that community has on our City. We are hoping to complete the project in the same time line we established last year with us completing and dedicating the mural project in last August of 2021. We hope to preserve the significance that the people in our community hold thought their personal and professional efforts. If you are interested in being part of the beautification and commutation project, we have commemorative pavers and bricks are available at https://donationbricks.com/greetingsfrommonroe We look forward to completing our Project and bringing Monroe another point of interest that certainly says “We Bring You Back.”
— Melissa Even is the executive director for the Monroe Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at melissa@monroechamber.org.
