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The Brand Company nameplate that appeared on much of its work. |
In Randy Domer’s new book, Remember When, I have a chapter on the history of Robert Brand & Sons. You can pick up a copy of Domer’s book at his presentation this Wednesday, May 7 at the Oshkosh Public Library (more on that here).
I thought now would be a good time to take a look at Brand’s lasting imprint on Oshkosh. And how that imprint is fading.
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The Brand Company plant at the southwest corner of Ceape and Court streets, circa 1917. |
Robert Brand was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1840. He was seven when he came to America with his ship-building father. The Brand family settled in Janesville. Young Robert followed his father into the carpentry trade. He built boats and cabinets and coffins. Brand was also a musician. His first visit to Oshkosh came in 1860 when he was touring with the Bower City Band of Janesville. Brand said the Oshkoshers welcomed him with “good fellowship” and a bottomless flute of champagne. He never forgot it. In 1867, Robert Brand moved here and began building boats.
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Robert Brand, circa 1880. |
Brand’s company would go on building boats in Oshkosh for nearly 40 years. But by the 1880s, the firm was getting better known for its interior work. Saloon interiors became a specialty. One of Brand’s early saloon clients was an English immigrant named William Englebright. His upscale ale house at the southwest corner of North Main and Algoma was outfitted by Brand to include a back bar tattooed with decorative scrollwork. Those furnishings no longer exist.
That’s the case with so much of Brand’s work. The first wave of barrooms designed by Brand has been lost. Unlike the architect Waters, Robert Brand and his sons, William and Robert Jr., worked in a medium that got little respect. The interior design of a saloon was beneath the consideration of Gilded Age tastemakers. Luckily, saloon-hopping journalists in Oshkosh had an eye for such things. The opening of the Brand-designed Senate Sample Room on Washington Avenue caused a Daily Northwestern reporter to gush with appreciation…
“It is a work of art in every respect. Immediately upon entering this place one is attracted by its exquisite beauty. The prevailing colors and tints, all harmonize and blend in making a happy and charming whole. The woodwork is of African mahogany, and the marble was quarried in the Alps. The electric light shades have an olive green tint and the remainder of the lighting fixtures are of oxidized brass. The four columns supporting the main fixtures back of the bar are in the Italian renaissance, Corinthian. It is no idle boast to state that the Senate is the most handsome place of its kind for many miles distant from this city.”
– Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, March 28, 1903.
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A Brand bar that reflects the description by the Daily Northwestern reporter, with a four-column back bar in the Corinthian style. |
The “exquisite beauty” of the Senate Sample Room is long gone, replaced by a parking lot.
There are some survivors, though. Brand designed the interiors for many of the neighborhood bars that were being established in Oshkosh in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These saloons tended to be less elaborate than their Main Street counterparts. But Brand’s work in these places remained distinctive. A model called The Grant was especially popular among Oshkosh’s smaller saloons.
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The Grant. |
The Grant wove a bundle of influences into a compact frame. The design juxtaposed Ionic and Corinthian motifs and was laced with the ornamental scrollwork that had become the company’s signature. Two variations of the Grant model remain in use in Oshkosh. Here’s the version at Bob’s Trails End, 500 Merritt Ave.
There’s also a Grant at HQ Bar & Grill, 1309 Oregon Street. This was formerly a Rahr Brewing tied house. Rahr often used the Brand company to equip its saloon properties.
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HQ Bar & Grill. |
On Oshkosh Avenue was another Rahr Brewing tied house outfitted with a Grant. This saloon was built in 1912 and was most recently known as the Tipsy Otter, which closed in 2024. Earlier this year, the back bar was salvaged and restored by the Harp Gallery of Kaukauna. Here’s a recent shot of that piece…
In Butte des Morts, Jimmie's White House Inn is home to the area's best-kept Brand & Sons saloon work from the early 1900s. Most of the wood fixtures at the White House Inn came out of the Brand factory on Ceape Avenue.
Brand’s work wasn’t confined to the Oshkosh area. By the early 1900s, the company sent most of its saloon furnishings to Schlitz Brewing in Milwaukee. Schlitz parceled out the pieces among its nationwide network of tied houses.
That wing of the business crashed in 1920 with the onset of national Prohibition. But Brand & Sons survived. The company was never solely reliant on the saloon trade for its solvency. It also produced wooden interiors for banks, municipal buildings, and commercial spaces.
Oaks Candy Corner, 1200 Oregon Street, presents an excellent example of Brand’s Prohibition-era output. Designed and installed in 1927, the interior of Oaks was modeled after “the taverns of old.” These are transitional pieces, but the earlier influences are evident. It retains the feel of the saloon work that preceded it.
That wing of the business crashed in 1920 with the onset of national Prohibition. But Brand & Sons survived. The company was never solely reliant on the saloon trade for its solvency. It also produced wooden interiors for banks, municipal buildings, and commercial spaces.
Oaks Candy Corner, 1200 Oregon Street, presents an excellent example of Brand’s Prohibition-era output. Designed and installed in 1927, the interior of Oaks was modeled after “the taverns of old.” These are transitional pieces, but the earlier influences are evident. It retains the feel of the saloon work that preceded it.
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Oaks Candy Corner. |
Brand & Sons jumped back into the taverns when Prohibition ended in 1933. The classical motifs and scrollwork were abandoned. A more modern, art-deco influence now predominated. The new look was in full force for the 1935 Brand remodel of the Peacock Bar and Restaurant near the northeast corner of Main and Washington. The winding, 36-foot cocktail bar was a symbol of a new era.
There is no better-surviving example of Brand’s bar work from the 1930s than the back bar at Oblio’s, 434 N. Main Street. This former Schlitz tied house was remodeled and re-equipped by Brand in 1936.
More than 110 taverns opened in Oshkosh within a year of Prohibition ending. Most of them were saloons before 1920. Many needed updating. Brand went on a tear, re-outfitting the old sample rooms and bringing them up to date.
In 1939, Brand went to work on an east-side tavern at the corner of Rosalia and Winnebago. This place dates back to 1888. Today, the name is Woodchuck's Bar & Grill. Its Brand-built back bar is now in its 86th year of service.
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November 17, 1939: the grand reopening of Luck’s Tavern (now Woodchuck’s) after it was re-equipped by Brand & Sons. Brand often sponsored ads in the Daily Northwestern to promote its latest work. |
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Woodchuck's Bar & Grill. |
In 1940, Brand built a new bar for the tavern that is now Andy's Pub & Grub on 9th Avenue. The curving lines, mirrors, and lighted sconces are typical of Brand’s work through the 1940s.
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Andy's Pub & Grub. |
At Boot’s Saloon on the corner of Merritt and Boyd, there’s a bar that is almost certainly a Brand piece. It displays all the traits of the company’s post-Prohibition work.
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The back bar at Boot’s Saloon. |
For every surviving Brand bar in Oshkosh there are probably a dozen that have been lost. Some might recall the Brand bar inside the Columbus Club at 1821 Jackson. The building was demolished in 2012 to make way for a mound of corporate blight named Dollar Tree. At least the bar was saved. It was sent to a buyer in Roswell, Georgia.
The departed Columbus Club's Brand bar. |
Recreation Lanes opened on South Main Street in 1939 and was equipped with a Brand bar. The bar was removed after the tavern and bowling alley closed in 2017. The Brand fixtures ended up in the taproom at Cercis Brewing in Columbus, Wisconsin. Cercis closed earlier this year. The bar and the building it is in are currently for sale.
Bar furnishings made of particle board coated with veneer and formica became commonplace in the 1950s. The synthetics were low cost compared to Brand’s custom woodwork. The company’s tavern work dropped off. Brand couldn’t compete in a market where customers were willing to settle for something that looked like this…
The last bar shipped out of the Brand factory was made for the Pioneer Inn in 1965. A year earlier, Robert Brand & Sons had been sold to Chadwick Manufacturing of Coleman, Wisconsin. Chadwick closed the Oshkosh facility in 1967. In 1968, the plant was torn down. An office building and parking lots are there now.