Northeast Neighborhood History
Thank you to neighbor Jerry Burke who authored the following article.
The area from Webster Stanley School to the corner of Hazel & Murdock, east to Lake Winnebago, began sincere development in the 1940’s.
Up until then most of the land, both north and south of East Murdock, was owned by Harold Doemel, who operated a large dairy farm. His home was located at what’s now the Northwest corner of Hickory and Murdock. The land he farmed was mostly on the north side of Murdock, as the south side was all marshland.
In the 1940’s, rubble from the Jackson Street reconstruction, was used to start filling in the marsh. Shortly after, the marsh, which was still part of the Town of Oshkosh, was used as the town dump for about three years.
Around 1950, Louie Graber bought the marsh from the Doemel family. Graber promptly petitioned to have it annexed into the city. Graber’s purchase combined with the annexation immediately led to homes being built along the entire length of Menominee Drive, and rapid development on Doemel and Northpoint Streets. Graber was also instrumental in developing and platting out what became White Swan, Graber and Cliffview Streets. (as a side note, many of the early homes built along Menominee and Northpoint initially had major flooding issues every time it rained, due to the marsh. The problems were eventually resolved, albeit slowly.)
The proximity of what was then Mercy Hospital prompted most of the doctors in Oshkosh, at that time, to build in this area.
Everyone who built or bought homes on the northeast side and had elementary school aged children at first had only Longfellow as a public school option, (Longfellow was located behind the former Mercy Hospital). At that time, Webster Stanley was strictly a middle school. The areas rapid development prompted the building of Emmeline Cook in 1954.
White Swan built up rapidly in the 1960’s, but it wouldn’t be until the middle 1980’s when Graber and Cliffview would become fully developed.
One of the distinctive and beautiful elements of this entire area of the city is the abundance of trees. Many yards have multiple mature trees, and the city enhanced that by planting trees along the terraces on several streets.
There would be even far more trees, but hundreds were lost in 2001 from straight line winds in excess of 100 miles per hour.
The other major attractive feature of the area is its proximity to Millers Bay and Lake Winnebago.
The area from Webster Stanley School to the corner of Hazel & Murdock, east to Lake Winnebago, began sincere development in the 1940’s.
Up until then most of the land, both north and south of East Murdock, was owned by Harold Doemel, who operated a large dairy farm. His home was located at what’s now the Northwest corner of Hickory and Murdock. The land he farmed was mostly on the north side of Murdock, as the south side was all marshland.
In the 1940’s, rubble from the Jackson Street reconstruction, was used to start filling in the marsh. Shortly after, the marsh, which was still part of the Town of Oshkosh, was used as the town dump for about three years.
Around 1950, Louie Graber bought the marsh from the Doemel family. Graber promptly petitioned to have it annexed into the city. Graber’s purchase combined with the annexation immediately led to homes being built along the entire length of Menominee Drive, and rapid development on Doemel and Northpoint Streets. Graber was also instrumental in developing and platting out what became White Swan, Graber and Cliffview Streets. (as a side note, many of the early homes built along Menominee and Northpoint initially had major flooding issues every time it rained, due to the marsh. The problems were eventually resolved, albeit slowly.)
The proximity of what was then Mercy Hospital prompted most of the doctors in Oshkosh, at that time, to build in this area.
Everyone who built or bought homes on the northeast side and had elementary school aged children at first had only Longfellow as a public school option, (Longfellow was located behind the former Mercy Hospital). At that time, Webster Stanley was strictly a middle school. The areas rapid development prompted the building of Emmeline Cook in 1954.
White Swan built up rapidly in the 1960’s, but it wouldn’t be until the middle 1980’s when Graber and Cliffview would become fully developed.
One of the distinctive and beautiful elements of this entire area of the city is the abundance of trees. Many yards have multiple mature trees, and the city enhanced that by planting trees along the terraces on several streets.
There would be even far more trees, but hundreds were lost in 2001 from straight line winds in excess of 100 miles per hour.
The other major attractive feature of the area is its proximity to Millers Bay and Lake Winnebago.