Downtown Westby

In 1921, when this photo was taken, Thoreson Lumber Company was located at the bottom left with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad headed north towards Sparta. Across East State Street going south from Thoreson Lumber is Bekkedal Warehouse #4 and directly behind that is the Milwaukee Road Depot that has a line of railroad cars along the west side of it. On the other side of the Milwaukee tracks is the Neprud warehouse that was destroyed in the tornado of 1930. Slightly further south is the grain elevator built in 1905 for the Cargill Grain Company. In this photo what looks to be directly east of the elevator is actually one block further north and is the smoke stack for Westby’s power plant and also visible is the old City Hall next to the smokestack.

Downtown Westby from the water tower 

The white roofed building is the C.L. Coleman Lumber Company that would become Taylor Lumber Company in 1927 and more recently Nuzum’s. Across the street from Coleman Lumber is the A.H. Dahl Ford Agency that would later become the Jules Rudie building and what is now the parking lot for Vernon Telephone Company.

At the center top of the photo is the Westby Coon Prairie Lutheran Church built in 1909. Moving north along Main Street is the Temperance Hall directly across Highland Street from the old Our Savior’s Lutheran Church that would be moved shortly after this photo was taken to its new location on East State Street and is Mike’s Feed Supply today in 2014.