By Jalen Maki
Tomahawk Leader Editor
TOMAHAWK – Tomahawk Together, a non-profit organization that has worked to support families and youth in Tomahawk for more than 30 years, is continuing to work towards the construction of an all-inclusive playground at Washington Square Park on N. 4th St. in Tomahawk.
In May 2021, the City of Tomahawk Park and Recreations Committee gave Tomahawk Together the green light to move forward with their efforts. The organization is currently collaborating with MSA, a Baraboo, Wis.-based company focused on community and land development projects, to design the playground.
Although plans for the park have continued to evolve over the last roughly year and a half, the current plan includes a playground with a poured-in-place, wheelchair-accessible surface, a splash pad and more.
This article will chronicle the history of Washington Square Park, covering the period of time from 1907 through today.
New high school opens
In Feb. 1907, the City of Tomahawk Common Council unanimously voted to issue $40,000.00 in city bonds in an effort to obtain the necessary funding to construct a new school building.
The high school was built at Washington Ave. and 4th St., currently the location of Washington Square Park, and the doors opened to about 300 students on Nov. 26, 1908.
The building served as a high school until Dec. 1958, when a new high school opened on Kings Road. The old building was renamed the Washington School, and it was repurposed as an elementary school.
Fire destroys Washington School
The Washington School was destroyed by a fire on Saturday, Aug. 12, 1978, just 19 days before the start of the 1978-1979 school year.
The blaze broke out around 1:18 a.m., when passersby noticed smoke coming from the building.
Roughly 36 firefighters from Tomahawk, Merrill, Rhinelander and the Town of Nokomis responded and fought the fire for about 90 minutes before bringing it under control.
The cause of the fire was ruled “accidental” by then-State Deputy Fire Marshal Leslie A. Meyer. No specific accidental cause was reported, but arson was ruled out after an investigation.
The fire was believed to have started in the attic near a small, glassed-in addition built in 1955 to serve as a Ground Observer Corps station, according to an Aug. 17, 1978 Tomahawk Leader article.
Lester Hanke, Tomahawk’s Fire Chief at the time, was quoted in the Leader article as saying the building “was just a-glowing” when firefighters arrived on the scene.
“We were here at 1:20,” Hanke stated. “A clock in the school stopped at 1:23.”
When the inferno was at its peak, firefighters were pumping approximately 4,500 gallons of water per minute from three nearby hydrants. An estimated 200,000 gallons of water were used to extinguish the fire.
Roughly 6,000 feet of 2 ½-inch hose was utilized by firefighters battling the blaze.
Although Hanke and two other firefighters received what Hanke described as “superficial injuries,” no one was seriously hurt in the fire.
Firefighters remained on the scene until daylight on Saturday morning, returning that evening, early Sunday morning and Monday morning to check and wet down smoke pockets.
At the time the 70- year-old school was destroyed, it housed about 450 children in grades three through six. Four adjacent portable classrooms, which accommodated first and second graders, were not damaged in the blaze.
Most of the damage occurred in the top two floors of the three-story building, with the third floor deemed a total loss. However, textbooks on the first and second floors were able to be salvaged.
The Leader article said the loss was estimated to be about $1.5 million, making it Tomahawk’s most costly fire – the infamous March 6, 1929 blaze the leveled the landmark Mitchell Hotel and 18 other buildings had caused about $243,500.00 in damage.
Administrators, school board face challenges
After the Washington School fire, School District of Tomahawk administrators and Board of Education members were faced with a challenge – finding space and materials for 450 displaced elementary school students.
The board met in an emergency session at 10 a.m. on the day the school was destroyed and authorized the administration to “research all possibilities” to find classroom space, according to a second Aug. 17, 1978 Leader article.
Then-Superintendent Ralph C. Johnson said utilizing large, empty buildings, church basements and gymnasiums, as well as relocating sixth grade to the junior high building and moving to double shifts, were weighed as options.
The board also discussed difficulties presented by housing students at scattered facilities, including providing transportation and hot lunch.
William Fischer, who was the district’s physical education director at the time, pointed to issues resulting from the destruction of Washington School’s gymnasium, which hosted physical education classes and basketball games and practices for boys and girls in grades seven through nine.
Fischer noted that scheduling practices would be a challenge and was quoted in the article as saying, “I just hope we don’t have to cut any programs.”
School year begins as planned
The School District of Tomahawk ultimately overcame the uncertainty it faced in a number of areas, and the 1978-1979 school year started as planned on Wednesday, Aug. 30, less than three weeks after the Washington School fire.
Students in grades three and four were sent to other area elementary schools and to the portable classrooms near Washington School that had escaped the blaze unscathed.
Six teachers, 108 fifth graders and 120 sixth graders were relocated to the National Guard Armory on Theiler Dr. The armory housed ten classes in one room, separated by blackboards, book cases and coat racks.
An article in the Aug. 21, 1980 issue of the Leader noted that utilizing the armory was a challenge for both students and teachers – the chief issue being noise created in the room, which had a high ceiling and concrete floors. Rugs were placed throughout the room in an effort to “lessen the din,” the article said.
Having 200-plus students in the armory for two school years was also a “major change” for 1st Sergeant Daniel R. Smith, the National Guard Administrative Supply Technician and Facility Manager whose full-time office was in the armory, the article noted.
Smith said that after overcoming what he saw as the biggest problem – storage, which was remedied by moving equipment around – he saw no discipline issues among students.
“They came in, sat down and were quiet,” Smith was quoted as saying. “It was almost like the military.”
The armory accommodated fifth and six grade students for the 1978-1979 and 1979-1980 school years.
A central elementary school built on Kings Road, the present-day location of the Tomahawk school complex, opened in 1980. Students housed in the armory, as well as the kindergarten building on Washington Ave. and the Fulsher, Bradley, Hiawatha and Harrison schools, were relocated there.
School closings were not new to Tomahawk-area residents, a second article in the Aug. 21, 1980 issue of the Leader pointed out. In previous years, the Mitchell, Nokomis, Forest City, Skanawan, Gilbert and Whittier schools had all been shuttered.
Washington School razed
The burned-out Washington School structure stood in place for about a year, until the City of Tomahawk purchased the square-block site and contracted with Eckert Wrecking of Rhinelander to raze the building in Aug. 1979.
A third Aug. 21, 1980 Leader article said the school “came down much faster than it went up,” noting that some bricks were sold for renewed use in barbecue pits and chimneys. Others were used as souvenirs at a class reunion.
The building’s cornerstone, dated 1907, revealed two old Leaders, clippings and two coins. The coins were “somehow lost in the excitement,” according to the article.
“In two weeks, all evidence of the Washington School – except for some playground swings – was gone,” the article said. “What remained were memories of a building that since 1908 had faithfully served high schoolers, seventh and eighth graders, and, most recently, children in grades 3-6.”
After the Washington School Fire: Toddler Park, gazebo built
The decades following the 1978 Washington School fire and the building’s eventual razing saw myriad changes at the square-block site.
In the 1980s and the early 1990s, a gazebo and wooden playground were built on the city-owned property.
The playground, dubbed “Toddler Park,” was geared towards younger children and was an ongoing project for the Tomahawk Jaycees, with additions and improvements being made throughout the early ‘90s.
A climber and sandbox were built in Aug. 1991 and June 1992, respectively.
A culvert was converted into a tunnel and added to the playground in July 1993.
The following month, the Tomahawk Royal Ladies Lions Club donated a lion fountain to the Jaycees, which was installed in Washington Square Park.
Today, the playground features more modern equipment, including swings, slides and a merry-go-round, as well as a basketball court.
Chamber building moved, converted into museum; On Target on display
A log cabin built by Al Kahn and Reuben Wurster in 1927 served as the Tomahawk Regional Chamber of Commerce building for two years, before it was destroyed in the infamous March 6, 1929 fire that leveled the landmark Mitchell Hotel and 18 other buildings. The Chamber building was later rebuilt at Wisconsin and Tomahawk Avenues by Kahn and Wurster, with help from the community.
When the Chamber was set to move to its new building at N. 4th St. and Washington Ave. in Washington Square Park in Oct. 1986, the historic cabin was rescued from demolition by a group of citizens.
After serving as a downtown Tomahawk landmark for more than 55 years, the former Chamber office and information booth was moved from Wisconsin and Tomahawk Avenues to its current location in Washington Square Park. It opened as Tomahawk’s first historical museum in 1987, one year after the Tomahawk Area Historical Society was formed. Today, it’s known as the Log Cabin Museum and features farming, logging and railroad memorabilia.
The Log Cabin Museum isn’t the only Washington Square Park building that’s home to Tomahawk history. On Target, a boat built by the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company in 1961, is also on display at the park.
On Target can be seen in a small building next to the Log Cabin Museum and across the street from the Tomahawk Area Historical Society on Washington Ave.
The 18-foot, two-passenger craft was designed by Frank Winter, the founder of the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company. Over the years, On Target was featured in Newsweek and on the Today Show. In 1998, after years of storage, Ed Bembinster donated the boat to the Tomahawk Area Historical Society.
The On Target building was constructed in 2009, and the craft can be seen there today.
TRACKS youth center
After the Washington School fire, one of the portable classrooms was eventually repurposed as a youth center.
The Tomahawk Recreational Area Center for Kids (TRACKS) was formed in 1989, when 33 members held a First and Formulative Steering Committee meeting.
TRACKS hosted a “Coming Out Party” on March 12, 1990, which was attended by 125 people. That May, several subcommittees were formed, focusing on programming, youth activities, family and community activities and other areas.
TRACKS and Tomahawk Together hosted numerous events throughout the 1990s, including guest speakers, workshops, plays, haunted houses, bike rides and dances. The organizations also took part in Tomahawk’s annual Christmas parade and hosted booths the Home, Sport and Travel Show and the Lincoln County Fair.
Train relocated to Washington Square Park
In Feb. 1990, “Old No. 19,” a steam engine that was 67 years old at the time, found a new home in Washington Square Park.
The train is a Mogul Type 2-6-0, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Penn., in 1923. In 1947, the Marinette, Tomahawk and Western Railway Company (MT&W) purchased the locomotive from the Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company in White Lake, Wis.
Diesel-electric trains eventually replaced their steam-powered counterparts, and MT&W gave Old No. 19 to the City of Tomahawk in 1960. The locomotive spent roughly two years in Memorial Park, where it sat unattended and was the target of vandalism.
In 1962, the engine was moved west across N. 4th St. and placed next to Dairy Queen. MT&W repainted the engine and installed a chain link fence around it. However, at that location, the locomotive was hidden from view and eventually fell into a state of disrepair.
A group of local citizens, called the Save the Engine Committee, along with members of the Tomahawk Area Historical Society, banded together with the goal of repairing the locomotive and moving it to a location where it could have “a more prominent spot in the public eye,” a Feb. 13, 1990 Leader article by Graham Foster said.
The process of relocating the train took about two years. In 1988, the City of Tomahawk Common Council gave the green light for the Washington Square Park site to be utilized, and a “major project” – the removal of asbestos insulation from the locomotive’s boiler – also took place that year, the Leader article said.
“(Moving the engine) took no shortage of muscle,” the article stated. “City, MT&W and Nekoosa Packaging combined manpower and machines to haul the engine on skids from 4th and River Streets to the park.”
According to the article, it took three highway graders, a “Carrylift” and two end-loaders to move Old No. 19 to Washington Square Park.
“After its arrival, it had a reunion with its coal tender, which had been painted in the MT&W shops,” the article stated.
After the engine was relocated to Washington Square Park, the Save the Engine Committee began collecting donations that went toward revamping the train.
The locomotive wouldn’t have to wait long to get a facelift. In Aug. 1990, about six months after its two-block journey south to Washington Square Park, Portable Paint and Blasting Service of Tomahawk used sandblasters to loosen the old paint and rust off the train before it was primed and painted.
In 2011, a grant from the Support Tomahawk Area Resources (STAR) Foundation helped pave the way for the Tomahawk Area Historical Society to restore the train and build a steel roof over it.
At 100 years old, Old No. 19 remains on display in Washington Square Park today.
Plans for Our Dream Park
Keep an eye on the Leader for an article taking a look at the plans for Tomahawk Together’s “Our Dream Park.”