When I'm off on a Road Trip it's usually not the known destinations that make them fun...it's the accidental finds. Sometimes it can be a complete enigma. Other times I see something from afar and have it pegged right away. As I drove near Horicon Wisconsin I saw this along the side of the road and said "Classic Supper Club. Fallen on Hard Times". And so it was. And so it has.
I've actually been to, and inside, the Great Pyramids. And this was fairly evocative. The dry, cracked parking lot all around this impressive structure is on a smaller scale reminiscent of the desert sands that come almost up to the doorsteps of the Pyramids and Sphynx at Giza. And that same pervasive sense of a Lost Era is hanging in the air.
The history of this place of course is more modern. Let's hunt up some clues...
The place seemed to be semi abandoned. There was a car parked out back; perhaps somebody lives there. But the roof is in sore need of repair and the general sense of decay is palpable. The front door looks to be long unused. But as is often the case with grand edifices in decline, a smaller more manageable portal is kept functioning. My photo was intended to just show the signage but includes my own image as an apparition from some alternate Mirror Universe.
I can't find a presence of the Harbor Missionary Church on Facebook or a functional website.
The story of this supper club can be found in this Roadside America entry. It's the usual tale. Somebody had an idea for a supper club. They hit on a theme that was current at the time and built it up into what sounds like a great business. Supper Clubs were, and to a lesser extent still are, an important part of Wisconsin culture. Friday night fish fries, potent brandy old fashioneds mixed by bartenders wearing ties and often red vests. Conversation and laughter just a bit louder than you'd find in more straight laced parts of the country. This is a world not yet entirely gone, but one that is receding into the past. Of course images survive. Let's look at a few before they become as puzzling as the delicate paintings on the walls at Giza.
Detritus of Empire. The phrase does not apply only to antiquity.
Thanks for posting pictures. I was in this part of Wisconsin a few decades ago and I remember this place was open as a restaurant then. Interesting to see what became of it.
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