Luxembourg American Cultural Society Celebrating New Beginnings with Debut of Renovated Center, and Immigrant Business Exhibit this Weekend
BELGIUM, WISCONSIN, MARCH 2, 2020. This weekend, the Luxembourg American Cultural Society celebrates new beginnings. After closing for renovations in early January, the center will reopen this Saturday, March 7th from 10 am- 4 pm. Renovations include a brighter, airier J.B. Krier Welcome Center with increased space for events and children’s programming, a modernized and more welcoming gift shop, and a reconfigured Dooley-Wagner Research Center, designed to be more accessible and user-friendly, with dedicated research space for genealogists.
Also making its debut is a new temporary exhibit in the LACS’s Acuity Rotating Exhibit area: “The Business They Built: Local Luxembourg American Businesses.”
This exhibit, designed by LACS Curator Serena Stuettgen, celebrates the local businesses established by Luxembourgers when they immigrated here in the 1800s.
When settlers first arrived to this area, the primary industry was farming, but as the farms grew and produced, additional businesses became in demand, and were born.
“While it would be nearly impossible to go into detail on every local business with Luxembourg American heritage in the region, a few with extraordinary histories and significance were chosen for this exhibit,” says Stuettgen.
The four businesses featured in-depth are The Lake Church Cheese Factory, started by Arthur “Art” Ansay in the 1925; the Allen-Edmonds Shoe Company, originally started by Elbert Allen, Senior and his partner, Ralph Spiegel, as the Allen-Spiegel Shoe Company in 1922; Krier Foods, founded by J.B. Krier in 1909 as the Belgium Cannery; and the Waubeka Pearl Button Factory, started in 1892 by J.P. Pallansch, Julius Klessig, G.A. Hewner and John Fintzen.
Museum guests can also read about more than 100 other local Luxembourg American founded businesses in this exhibit, which runs until June 1.
The LACS is open to view the exhibit every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10 am til 4 pm, as well as the first Saturday of each month. The LACS is open by appointment only on Tuesdays, Sundays, and the remaining Saturdays.