The City of Viroqua has an outstanding opportunity to develop an information and visitor center with public restrooms in the heart of its downtown area, and community support is needed to make this project a reality. Here’s how the project came about and where it stands today:

In the fall of 2022, the City Council of Viroqua gave the Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission (VHPC) permission to research possibilities for the city’s bathhouse building, a historic landmark that was built during the mid-twentieth century by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The VHPC hired Marc Zettler, a preservation architect, to inspect the building and write an evaluation. His evaluation stated, “After analyzing the building on site, it is my professional opinion that this building is in a condition that warrants rehabilitation rather than removal. The walls are structurally robust and, if maintained, can last for many more decades, possibly centuries. It would be a significant waste of embodied energy to remove the structure.”

How The Project Started

Also in the fall of 2022, Aaron Van Loo, a student in Architectural Technology at Western Technical College, contacted the VHPC and made his capstone project, a plan for renovation of the WPA bathhouse building, available to the commission. Aaron’s project design, complete with floorplan and computer images, calls for renovation of the historic bathhouse into a four-season building.

The VHPC presented Marc Zettler’s evaluation and Aaron Van Loo presented his project design to the Viroqua City Council on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. The VHPC also laid out a way to pay for the renovation using a Community Development Investment (CDI) Grant funded by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). The Viroqua City Council gave the VHPC permission to apply for the CDI Grant, which is a one-to-one matching grant of up to $250,000. The City allocated $238,000 for the project—$200,000 in funding from Tid #6 and $38,500 previously budgeted for the bathhouse—to help meet the grant’s matching funds requirement.

The Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission (VHPC), with the approval of the City, then created a WPA Building Task Force to address the planning and fundraising needed to apply for the CDI Grant.