Westby's Underground

First a little history of the beginning of our underground, usually called basements. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, starting with the building of the Bank of Westby on the corner of First and Main Streets, buildings were now being built of brick, steel and rock, replacing the older wooden buildings. These new building were stronger and therefore able to have three or more floors. Basement, main floor and upper floors for storage or office space.

A.H. Dahl & Company
Notice all the people leaning on the railing in front of the steps
that went down to the Barber Shop and Westby Times

Our tour will start at the corner of Main and State at today’s Uff-Da Shoppe, built in 1898 by A.H. Dahl. Facing the front door we take a right and go down the outside stairway. The business we find located in the basement are Edward A. Lins barbershop. And, if the year is 1900, we find the Westby Times newspaper office in their first location.

Continuing south we arrive at the Westby Telephone Building built about 1908. Before this new building, the telephone company had been located in a modest building made of wood at about the same location. The “number please” women were located on the top floor, a drug store located on the main floor, Rudies Drugs being one of them, and in the rear, a walkout basement for telephone company storage.

The E.J. Sveen Furniture & Undertaking establishment is next on the tour. Built in 1898, today it is the location of Treasures on Main. The steps to the basement businesses was under where the front steps are located today. It is unknown what business was located in this basement.  

To the left of the boys leaning against the building are the steps to the basement of E.J. Sveen Furniture & Undertaking establishment.
Under the Bank of Westby on the corner are the steps to the lower level and a Restaurant

Next door, the building on the corner of First and Main, was bought by Carl O. Bye in 1897 from Bergena M. Ballsrud and became Westby’s first official bank. Treasures on Main is the current occupant. The stairway to the lower level was in the front of the building with the top step at the corner. As we step down, we are facing north. As we reach the bottom we find a restaurant possibly G.M. Peterson’s restaurant.  

In 1975, David Vosseteig owner at that time, had a doorway put in to combine the two basements, putting his carpet business in the north building and dining room furniture in the south building.

Crossing Main Street, we will now start going north. The vacant lot between Mary Gajewski, Dentist, and Larson Brothers Body Shop, recently demolished to make room for the Subway being built, is our next stop. Built as a new car showroom that over the years, had numerous car dealers located at this address. How many of you remember the ramp going to the main floor from street level with steps in the middle of the ramp for people to use to walk up to the car showroom? By raising the main floor, the basement had access out the back door for cars to drive in for repairs.

Next stop is the Nelson Barber Shop located under Hotel Evans. The stairway is south of the building and as we step down the steps we are walking west. Starting when the hotel was built in the late nineties, a barber shop continued in the same place until 1957 when Clifford Perkins moved his barbershop to a new location. Remember all the plants he used to have in his front below-ground window?

Nelson Brother's Barber Shop

In 1914, the new Bank of Westby built their building between Hotel Evans and was until recently Westby Bakery & Coffee Shop. While their basement was never a public place, I am mentioning it because it was classified by our government as a Fallout Shelter during the cold war in the 1960s. It was the place to go to if the air raid siren sounded. In the basement, dry food and bottled water were stored if the need should arise. A few other places in town were also classified as air raid shelters.

Of all the underground businesses we have visited, the only one with an inside stairway is next. An unassuming normal sized door located on Main Street opened to a stairway that takes us to down under Stevlingson & Call to C. O. Hagen’s Billiards and Bowling. A pool hall continued in this location until the late 60s. Today, Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts is located above the former pool hall.

Joseph Borgen working at the Opera Café about 1919

Only one underground left to visit but it is the one with the most unexpected surprise. In 1905 the Westby State Bank opened with the Opera Café in the basement to complement the Opera House on second floor. As we face the bank’s font door we make a left and go down the steps to the Café with their selling point, Oysters in Season. Exiting the Opera Cafe by a back door we find ourselves among many doors used as bank storage rooms. One of these doors opens to one of the most unusual rooms in Westby.

Opening this door, remember we are still in the basement, we find ourselves on a balcony overlooking a huge cavernous dimly lit expanse of nothingness, almost three stories tall. What is the purpose of this room? When Martin Bekkedal built the Westby State Bank he had the foresight to build a room large enough to hold enough coal for an entire heating season, even in the coldest winter. This double deep basement room held three full train cars of coal.

Our tour of Westby’s Underground is now complete, hope you enjoyed it! If you are still in need of more undergrounds, how many of you remember the tunnel connecting the old grade school with the old high school? Demolished many years ago to make room for the new school. What do you remember about this dungeon-like shortcut that was also a tornado shelter and was usually dark, always hot, and sometimes scary?

There is one other tunnel of interest to Westby readers. The tunnel from the Neprud house to another time and place. Written by Joel Lovstad, using the pen name of J.L. Fredrick, The Other End of the Tunnel is Lovstad’s first of many published novels. For anyone interested in Westby’s past with a little bit of fiction and fantasy thrown in for good measure, this is a necessity read for anyone interested in our local history.