The Bulk of the Research
The Neenah Menasha Y
110 West North Water Street, Neenah WI
We spent many hours researching the Neenah Menasha Y and were unsuccessful for many days including with a trip to the Neenah Public Library. We then decided to reach out to Scott Schanhofer, the director of the Y, and met with him. Being that the Y's 125th anniversary was this year Scott was able to lend us a book the Y created about all of the YMCA's history from the first YMCA being founded in 1844 by George William in London, England, up to the present day Neenah Menasha Facility, built in 1965. This book was incredibly helpful in telling us about all of the previous buildings and locations of the Neenah Menasha Y. Starting with the first building, the YWC, built on 201 West Wisconsin, Neenah in 1913-1914, followed by its relocation to 204 East Doty Ave, Neenah(1915- 1929). It was here that the YWC became the YWCA in 1929 up until another relocation in 1935. Still as the YWCA, the facility was moved to 138 North Commercial St, Neenah (1935-1965). Finally, in 1965, the building relocated one last time to its current location at 110 West North Water St, Neenah. Before being built three houses had to be torn down in 1967 in order for the facility to have enough space. Although the book, courtesy of Scott Schanhofer, had an abundance of helpful information, especially regarding all of the previous locations(See photos on Previous Homes page), it did not provide any information on the owners of these previous estates. This is when we reached out to another member of the community, Jane Lang. As the Executive Director of the Neenah Historical Society, Jane was able to offer us some helpful information regarding the contact information of Y management, previous homes and their owners. However, the majority of our research on the home owners was done on the University of Wisconsin digital collections site. This was where we found the last of the research we needed to piece together an accurate timeline of the homes and owners. With the help of Scott Schanhofer, Jane Lang, the University of Wisconsin digital collections, the Neenah Historical Society and other websites we were able to gather enough research to determine the history of the current Neenah Menasha Y facility.
"University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Clipboard." University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Clipboard. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2015.
(photos courtesy of Neenah Menasha Y)
"University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Clipboard." University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Clipboard. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2015.
(photos courtesy of Neenah Menasha Y)