Features Program for Dedication of Town’s New Community Hall
Published August 15, 1941, in the Green Bay Press-Gazette
With John H. Lasher, Washington, D.C., director of works projects for the National Youth Administration, coming here to deliver the principal address, this village will formally dedicate its newly completed hall and public library Sunday afternoon. Local, district, state, and national heads of the NYA are on the program.
The program opens at 1:30 when the Gibraltar high school band, Fish Creek, under the direction of Arthur Blahnik, starts a half-hour concert on the lawn of the community center. Grounds around the new building have been landscaped to form a continuation of the Waterfront Park property.
At 2 o’clock, with the Rev. Lawrence L. Selin, pastor of the First Baptist Church here in charge, the placing of the cornerstone will take place. At 2:30 in the auditorium, the official dedication program will open with the audience singing “America, The Beautiful.” The rest of the program will follow in this order, invocation by the Rev. Erie Sherstrom, a retired minister, living permanently at Sister Bay; “The Story of the Sister Bay Hall,” a talk by Samuel F. Johnson, Green Bay, district director of NYA: a duet by Mr. and Mrs. Antone Halstedt, Chicago.
Then brief remarks by Al Larson, Sturgeon Bay, county supervisor of NYA; Mrs. Andrew Magnette, president of the Sister Bay Women’s Club; Carl Bensen, president of the local Men’s Club, and the reading of a letter from Congressman Joshua Johns, who was invited to speak but was unable to accept, by Dr. R.L. Driscoll, the village clerk.
Next is a short talk by John Faville Jr., Milwaukee, state NYA administrator, then the principal address by Lasher.
A duet by Mrs. Harry Carlson, Chicago, and Mrs. Antone Halstedt, Chicago, is next on the program, to be followed by the second major address of the day by the Rev. Henry Burns, O.M.I., pastor of St. Rosalia Catholic Church here and St. Mary’s of the Lake Church, Baileys Harbor. Then brief remarks by the president of Sister Bay Village, Gust Carlson, with the program closing with the audience singing “God Bless America.”
This beautiful building of native Door County stone is Sister Bay’s new community hall, housing auditorium and town hall as well as a library wing. It is located adjacent to the community’s Waterfront park and adds considerably to Sister Bay’s public facilities.
Work on the completed air-conditioned building, all in native Door County stone was started a year ago after the village people had voted on a small bond issue. Then the entire building job was carried on as an NYA project. Today the hall stands finished except to furnish the library part and stock it with volumes. This is being done at present, and when the books are under the direction of Prof. J.C. M. Hanson, an internationally known librarian who makes this his permanent home.
