About

About this non-profit website:

The information on this website comes from a variety of sources: The Manitowoc County Historical Society, The Manitowoc Public Library, The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, old postcards and other tavern memorabilia found at flea markets and on E-bay. It mostly comes from individuals contributing photos and information from their private collections.

This project is something that I thought about doing for a long time, but didn’t actually begin until the winter of 2008. But even after beginning this project in ’08, I’m surprised by the number of changes to the Manitowoc tavern scene. Old taverns have been torn down, destroyed by fire, and most commonly, gone out of business. We’ve also had some new ones open or move to a new address.

My parents were starting out as adults in the 40’s. My dad worked on the Reiss Co. coal boats as a fireman and was a frequent visitor to places such as Del’s Cardinal Bar. My mom worked at Automatic Hostess in the late 40’s and early 50’s. This was a business that supplied music to the taverns in a unique way – click on the automatic hostess name to see a bit of history that most people never knew existed.

The Map page offers an interactive map of the downtown area with markers indicating the present or past location of taverns. You can zoom in on a given area and by touching or dragging on the marker with your mouse, a picture of the present site will pop up. In some cases there is literally nothing there but an empty lot.

If you wish to see what was there – go to the Taverns  page which may provide a picture of a tavern that stood on that site.

Click  here  to see Manitowoc Herald Times articles about this website.

See John Budan’s  Growing up in the 50’s.