Homes once stood where the old ‘Y’ is now
Published 1:11 pm Thursday, June 25, 2009
To the editor:
Having lived on North State Street for the last 62 years, your picture of the old Broadway Bridge brought back many memories. I could actually hear the clankety clank of the old bridge as you drove across to old Pawating.
The most often question asked of me is what was where the old “Y” stands today?
Enclosed is a picture of the houses razed to make room for the “Y.”
I can’t remember the name of the elderly lady that lived in the first home, but perhaps Gloria Cooper remembers her name and something about her, as Gloria grew up on North State Street, not far from there.
The red brick house next was the home of Judge Coolidge and his two daughters still lived there when they sold their home to the “Y.” They moved over the Grant Street viaduct to the Mould Addition.
The third house was the Powell home. My wife Pauline and I became close friends and visited one another often even when he was transferred to Billings, Mont. They had two children: Tom and Mary. I still correspond with Mary who is married to a neurosurgeon in Topeka, Kan.
Thank you for listening to a doddering old man!
Raymond L Pedersen
Niles