I didn't research this town before I started writing the captions. That was a mistake, as you'll see.

Almost 11,000 souls, it sits on the southern border in Green County. The current mayor is Louis Armstrong. About 2.4% of the population is under the poverty line. The list of its famous residents includes the very very Wisconsin entry,"G. Fred Galli, cheesemaker and legislator."

Let's begin.

Here are the plans as you requested, sir. I think your request for the cheapest possible design came at the right time, since the cultural zeitgeist has shifted to appreciate stripped down designs as a sign of modernity.”

“Lucky me, then.”
The lower floors look original, too.
OUMB:
You can almost hear the head of the architectural firm: “hey, what did we do with that losing e try in the college building design competition?”
Kitschy-koo:
A local landmark, no doubt. You can’t not love buildings like that.
I’ll never not lament the fact that one of my favorite types of architecture coincided with a Depression that mean examples are rare as the teeth of hen.
Kids must have loved that building. Buck Rogers got his Atom Gas here
Let me creep out on a trembling thin limb and say . . . theater?

Cinema Treasures: “The Goetz Theatre is in an Atmospheric Spanish Renissance style with some Art Deco accents. It was opened on September 2, 1931. Like other buildings in Monroe, a Swiss style roof was added over the front doors.”

Like other buildings? Was there an intentional move to Swissify Monroe?

UPDATE: I have since learned that Monroe is "the Swiss Cheese Capital of the USA."
More pictures here.
 
Solid as the ages:
Corpus callosum realm of the galaxies Hypatia concept of the number one Orion's sword how far away? Star stuff harvesting star light encyclopaedia galactica stirred by starlight with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence laws of physics brain is the seed of intelligence? Star stuff harvesting star light the ash
An unfortunate awning.
F. F. WHITE
Designed by Allan Darst Conover, who hired a high schooler to help out in the office. The kid went on to design a few things himself.
The bay window looks like they’re bumping its head on the cornice.
This is one of the rare examples of people actually using downtown benches.
There are many criticisms one can level against 60s designs . .

. . . but lack of confidence and audacity isn’t one of them.

Ghastly, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Thanks, Andy!

At least I assume it’s one of Andy’s. Let’s see . . . well, what do you know.

In 1903, the Monroe City Council established a Library Board, which wrote to the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, hoping to receive some of the funds that Carnegie gifted to cities around the country to establish public libraries. Though Carnegie offered a grant, the City Council and local residents became divided over the location of the library.

Lida Ludlow, continuing her advocacy for a public library, convinced her husband and his two brothers to match the Carnegie offer and establish a library named after her father-in-law. In 1904, Edwin Ludlow, in the name of the Ludlow family, gave $12,500 to the School District to build a new library.

Why not take the money and use the 12K for something else?
 
Small, lovely, and still around only because it’s in a small town.
Big cities would have chewed it up and spat it out decades ago. Makes you realize how much of the old architectural vernacular depends on small towns.

“Mr. Architect, I believe today marks the middle of the week that separates the classical phrase from the Moderne phase of government buildings. Design accordingly.”
 
Remember that little library we saw a few pictures back?

The replacement.

If I could go back in time, I’d shut down the construction industry entirely for a few years. Except for Brady-esque ramblers.

What I can’t shake is the suspicion that the pediment atop the entrance was added later. To give it history.