Danes Hall

About this property

The Danes Hall in Waupaca, Wisconsin, United States, was built in 1894 as a gathering place for the Danes Home Society. It served historically as a clubhouse, as a meeting hall, and as an auditorium. The upper floor consists of a dance hall with a balcony. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Danes Hall was organized by eleven members of the Danish club on January 6, 1877. The group grew to a maximum membership of 300 members before dwindling to 32 by 1940. The building was designed by William Waters. The building contained a library with over 1000 books. In the winter of 1876-1877, the Wisconsin Central Railroad had just been completed to Ashland Wisconsin and many of the men who had worked on the line were idle. Combined with the young men idled by the lack of work on the local farms, there was an enormous number of men who had no place to go for an evening of companionship and amusement, except at the local saloons. A group of members of the Waupaca community got together to see what could be done to provide these men with a more suitable environment to gather. Lars Larson, William Bendixen and Nels Larson from Waupaca and A.P. Larson from Farmington township circulated a pledge and a petition. When 12 people had signed the pledge a room was rented in the wooden building owned by O.O. Olson. The first meeting was held On January 6, 1877. Each signer paid a fee of 50 cents and The Danes Home was born. A short time later this building was destroyed by fire. The Danes Home (De Danske Hjem) was the first lodge to organize for social and literary purposes. In 1882 it incorporated under the laws of Wisconsin. The constitution and bylaws were adopted and the name "The Danes Home" was formally adopted. The bylaws provided that all males born to Danish parents, 18 years of age, or older, who were able to read and speak the Danish language, would be eligible for membership. Gambling and intoxicating beverages were strictly forbidden on the premises. After some years The Danes Home Society had their own insurance for the benefit of the sick and incapacitated. The charter members were Hans Yorkson, president; A. Rasmussen, vice president; George Nelson, librarian; Jens Peterson, JohnGeorgeson, George Hennegsen, N. Larson, A.P. Anderson and Jens Rasmussen. The newly organized Danes Home rented three more different locations before they made the purchase of a building of their own in 1882. The second location was upstairs in the F. Peterson building: the third location was over the post office in the Chady building on east Union Street south of the Courthouse Square. While located here, the building burned. The next location was over Matt Jensen's market on North Main Street. where the society remained until November 14, 1882 when they purchased the old courthouse that was being moved off of Courthouse Square to make room for a new courthouse building.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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