The Wisconsin Historical Society has recognized two efforts in St. Croix River communities that have saved historic buildings and provided new spaces for business and the arts. The awards represent a sweep of the category by these local projects — winning both the under $1 million and over $1 million budgets slots. The projects were a restoration of a 1930s service station in Gordon and the historic auditorium in St. Croix Falls, respectively.

The annual Board of Curators Awards “recognize individuals and organizations across the state for exceptional work aligned with the Society’s mission to connect people to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories.”

The Board of Curators is the Wisconsin Historical Society’s governing body and includes both elected and appointed members from across the state.

“History comes to life through the dedication of those who preserve and share it,” said Christian Overland, the Ruth & Hartley Barker Director and CEO of the Wisconsin Historical Society. “The 2025 Board of Curators Award recipients have made outstanding contributions to honoring Wisconsin’s past, helping people across the state connect with the stories, places and traditions that shape our shared heritage. Their exceptional work strengthens our understanding of who we are and where we come from.”

The St. Croix Falls Civic Auditorium, built in 1916, was once the center of the town’s cultural life but had been vacant for many years, until a partnership of public and private entities took on an extensive restoration that has reopened the space to the community once again.

Lift Bridge Builders of Houlton (recently highlighted in a St. Croix 360 article about another building restoration), developer 210 Civic LLC, and numerous other partners and funders to bring the building back to life.

“The sale and renovation of the building was the culmination of a multi-decade effort, and increased intensity of that effort with the award of a Community Development Investment Grant in 2015 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and the fundraising efforts by the Centennial Committee,” reports the St. Croix Falls Historical Society. “From 2015 to 2022, there were some false starts with obtaining a commitment from a developer, the economy, and the Covid impact, etc, before the local investors from 210 Civic LLC emerged. The city was fortunate to have a city council unified on the objective of redeveloping the civic auditorium as a catalyst for downtown improvement, and an experienced and skilled city administrator at the time, Joel West, who worked with the WEDC to keep the grant from expiring, developed an extensive development agreement to accomplish the objectives of the various funders and parties involved, and negotiated with developers, to keep the up the project momentum.”

Funders and supporters include: Friends of the Civic Auditorium, Festival Theater, St. Croix Falls Centennial Committee, Hugh J Andersen Foundation, Andersen Corporation, Hardenbergh Foundation, Fred C. and Katherine B Anderson Foundation, Ravenholt Foundation, Studio M Architects, New History (Architects), Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and the City of St. Croix Falls.

The venue has been hosting concerts and other performances and events already this year, and there was a Grand Welcoming event last night.

Historian and 2025 Pine Needles Artist-in-Residence Haley Prochnow will present at the auditorium on November 13 about her research and writing on unsung local heroine Florence Baker Riegel.

In Gordon, a business owner and community members worked together to move a distinctive prefab service station built in 1939 from an undesirable location to the center of town, loving repainted and repaired it, and reopened it as an ice cream and gift shop. Owner Julie Phelps led the project with help from others, including local historian Brian Finstad. He says the station was the last of its kind still standing in the nation.

“It now stands in its third location in downtown Gordon,” Finstad wrote. “Originally a Cities Service Station, it was longest and most remembered as a Shell Station and in its later years used for snowmobile repair, as a used car lot, auto repair, and a tow truck garage before a long period of vacancy and deterioration.”

Finstad, who lived in Minneapolis for several years, said he noticed the gas station’s resemblance to the Band Box Diner in Minneapolis, which he learned was a prefab model made by Butler Manufacturing Company, the same Missouri company that had made the gas station in his hometown. Both structures were built in 1939. The owners of the building were planning to tear it down when Finstad intervened and Nelson purchased the building.

The former service station opened in the summer of 2024 as Gordon Station, with owner Julie Phelps and employees serving up cones all season. That included during Gordon’s popular Good Neighbors Days celebration, when she expected to have 10 people working all weekend.