Carole F. (McGinley) Edland earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, Texas, and completed an art major from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1981 after a career as a registered nurse. She owns and operates the Edland Art Gallery in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Later, she earned a Doctor of Ministry degree and began the Butterfly Ministry designed to help people cope in times of crisis. Edland has also written a book called “Devyn has Cancer: A Tale of Two Angels.”
In pursuit of an art major from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Carole F. Edland researched, compiled and photographed representative life work of residential contractors Barney Spangler (1891-1965) and William M. Crowley (1886-1969) of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Spangler began his professional career as a carpenter, but opened his own business as a contractor after a labor strike in 1919. In this same year, Spangler built his first house, a bungalow, at 110 North 23rd St. for $6,000. Spangler wanted to keep current on trends and materials and subscribed to magazines focused on residential design. He was noted for ordering blueprints commercially, or sketching out the plans for a house on brown manila paper. Spangler’s next house at 2305 Main St. was a brick, two-story prairie-style home.
Edland’s interviewees noted that he could look at a set of plans or a picture of a house and then go right ahead and know how to build it. Spangler also marketed the homes he built and would try to make it easy for people to rent or purchase his homes.
Crowley was known for bungalows and small colonial-type style of residences. The bulk of Crowley constructed homes is located on the city’s east end, including all 15 houses on Grandview Place, between Main and King streets, 21st and 22nd streets. The area was considered the city’s extreme eastern limits when the houses were constructed between 1924-1934. More are located in the area from 22nd Street to Losey Boulevard between Pine and La Crosse streets. Crowley purchased the 41 acres in 1930 which became the Crowley Homes Addition to La Crosse and is bounded on the western side by Emerson School and Crowley Playground.
