Letter to the Editor,

The historic grandstand is being torn down? It saddens me that Austin is losing another part of its history that makes small towns so charming and part of their cultural fabric and geography. When you move away and live in other parts of the world, you learn to appreciate the gems that shaped your life where you were born. I know firsthand.

Why is the county board so bad at history in taking care of Austin’s landmarks with taxpayer money and with myopic thinking? The board let the remains of the Victorian era 1884 courthouse dome/courtroom get hauled away from the Mower County Historical Society a few years ago by not helping with needed funds to save it. The county had blindly torn the 1884 structure down in 1967 to make way for the new courthouse, a building that is hardly the crown jewel the former was. The silver dome was the tallest object in Austin for many years, and it later adorned the fairgrounds for years until it too, wasn’t taken care of.

My father was former Mower county clerk of court William D. Sucha (1922-2010). Dad inspired the kindness of people like Martin Bustad and others to appreciate history to save and move what they could of the courthouse for the sake of history. Dad helped put the dome on display at the fairgrounds in 1967 with the original 1884 courtroom below it so people in the future could learn and see where they come from in Austin and how that history relates to the whole world around us. You have my Dad, Martin Bustad, Harold Davison and many others to thank for the Milwaukee 1004 railroad display that continues to delight and educate people at the fairgrounds. People worked together to preserve and save Austin’s historic cultural gems, not destroy them or foolishly burn them down.

The Great Depression was horrific for Austin in the 1930’s. Many lost jobs, homes and things were worse than today. For Austin to get a Federal Public Works Administration fund to build things so people there could work again, get paid, and recover from the economic nightmare of the Great Depression, is amazing and historic. It was all part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to help the nation recover from the worst economic crisis ever.

That grandstand represents that recovery from the Great Depression, something we can relate to with today’s Great Recession. To tear down or burn that amazing structure is just like going out to Oakwood Cemetery and defecating on your grandparents or ancestors graves that made Austin what it is today. (I am a proud fifth generation Austinite.)

We treat our elderly people in this country like garbage when we think they are not useful anymore or think they are a burden, and we put them away in rest homes to die. We tear our historic elderly buildings down with the same disposable mentality when we think they are too old and useless. What is wrong with this picture? Plenty: Lack of respect of where we come from and taking our lives for granted.

You have a historic elderly gem in Austin that has much use still for generations to come, if you pull together, save it and restore it. This is what we do in large cities with help from the Federal Government and financial support of patrons with tax-deductible contributions. Anything is possible: A town in Wisconsin just saved their fairground grandstand. Why not Austin? To think of kids in the future who will never to know what it was like at fair time with proud American flags flying on the grandstand roof, red, white and blue stars mounted on the sides, the St. Olaf Lutheran Woman’s booth with terrific pies, the thrill of watching an event in the stands — will be a crime. Even if it is for only seven days of the fair, that grandstand is worth saving folks. It takes us from our mundane lives being at the fair once a year.

By the way, that tornado in 1961 started in our backyard at 808 18th Street SW knocking everything out of Mom’s kitchen cupboards while it shook our house. It skipped through our neighborhood, picking up and dropping Terri Hagameier, blowing up a garage, and then hitting the grandstand after it arrived there. The grandstand survived despite the roof being damaged. It was built very well, and now probably needs a different evaluation by an inspector who appreciates history and not bent on destruction.

I urge the citizens of Austin to save your history, and that of FDR’s Public Works Administration that saved your town in the Great Depression of the 1930s before it’s gone forever.

James Gerhardt Sucha,

Green Bay, Wis.