Our followers have certainly noticed the lack of new content on our website over the past year, as well as have seen our social media quiet down. But that doesn’t mean things weren’t happening in the background.
In fact, 2022 was a big year for our little project. Here’s an update of what was going on off line…
Last February, Historic Stevens Point held a public funeral and procession in honor of 1700 Strongs Avenue, which was demolished shortly after. Founder, Chelsey Pfiffner, arranged for a service to be held at the location, coordinated a “funeral” procession march to the Rose House, and followed it by a reception with short talks from Portage County Historical Society, Executive Director, John Harry and others. You can read about it in our February 2022 blog post. And here in this WPR article, Chanel 9 News clip, and Stevens Point Journal article. A Live Facebook talk was also produced earlier in that month that showcased the 3d Matterport scan made the previous December.
Shortly after the building memorial, Pfiffner took time away from the Historic Stevens Point project publicly, and continued to research Stevens Point history in the background. During that time, she spent many hours at the archives going through numerous documents including the Ameila Berg trial papers from her infamous final jaunt in Stevens Point as well as the Hotel Whiting/ Kingston Hotels files.
Solidifying her place as a Stevens Point historian, Pfiffner was awarded with the Winn Rothman Award from the Portage County Historical Society at their annual meeting in April of 2022 for her research on the city’s history.
In June, in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Portage County Library System, Pfiffner presented on the history of past Stevens Point Library buildings to a crowd of about 70 people at the downtown Portage County Library. This was the first talk sponsored by the historical society for their Talking Points, Historical Education Programming series made possible through a grant from the Community Foundation of Central Wisconsin.
Pfiffner was invited to tour the St Joseph’s Convent construction project in October where she took numerous exclusive photos that will be posted here in an upcoming blog post.
Then in December, Pfiffner spoke to a full house at the Sunset Point Winery for the well publicized presentation, Stevens Point Holiday Traditions, again sponsored by PCHS and CFCW. Wine was drank, memories flowed, laughs were had, and history was told!
And just this past month Pfiffner was noted in the popular OnMilwaukee.com column, Urban Spelunking, regarding her research on the Hotel Whiting and her family’s connections.
Our website has been quiet, but Pfiffner certainly has not! We hope you had a chance to attend one of our events over last year, and if not we hope to see you at a future event!
As 2023 moves forward, please continue to follow our blog and Facebook page for more events like future presentations sponsored by the Portage County Historical Society, Facebook updates on current research, collaborations with other local historians, as well as fresh blog posts, and possibly a few live Facebook talks!
As always, a special thank you to those who have continued to follow our work and have supported the project along the way. You are most appreciated!
Historic Stevens Point 