Colfax Letters to the Editor – 10-3-2012
Hats off to the members of the Colfax Municipal Building Restoration Group for an afternoon well spent in Colfax!
My husband, Steve, and I, attended the Open House last Saturday and were so pleased to witness all of the restorative work that has been done to a building that remains one of my first and favorite memories of Colfax when our family moved there in 1955. Most impressive to me was the work done in the theater where friends and family attended movies on Saturday nights many years ago — the windows, so long boarded up, are now new and beautiful letting the sunlight flow in to highlight the old theater seats, refinished wood flooring and nicely painted walls. The library is pleasantly inviting, even the old jail has been spruced up, the bathrooms are newly decorated (well, all I can really speak for is the ladies room!), the administrative office is bright and efficient looking (we even got to see a picture of my husband’s great-great grandfather, Colfax founder, J D Simon on the wall in that room!) and the history room next to the theater is full of very interesting stories, fun pictures and Colfax memorabilia. All of the hard-working members of the CMBR committee who were present on Saturday were so friendly, helpful and full of information besides serving coffee, apple cider and bars, making the visit just a delight.
In 1998, our daughter, Denise, who lives in Sanford, FL (near Orlando) put together a project for a Historic Preservation class she was taking at the time. One of her assignments was to do a historical report on a town of her choosing — she chose Colfax, did an excellent job of putting it together with interesting facts and pictures (not only my opinion, her instructor gave her an A!) and since visiting the Municipal Building on Saturday and talking to Sue Hill, we’ve gotten Denise’s permission to donate our copy of the project to the history room mentioned above. We hope it’ll be well read by its visitors.
To top off the open house, we were entertained by Jim Herrick and Friends, featuring Sue Orfield, well-known saxophone player in the Chippewa Valley. We have paid a lot of money for entertainment through the years that could not top what we tapped our feet to in the new Municipal Building theater last Saturday — they played for two hours to what should well have been a full house — those not there missed a wonderful performance! We hope for all who couldn’t attend that Jim’s band (Jim just happens to be the husband of my cousin, Jeanne Paul Herrick) will repeat the show they put on Saturday another time. Then many more could not only enjoy the fun and superb music, but renew the memories of that great building as it was forty years ago and more. A day to be remembered — thanks CMBRG!
Judy Powers Saumer