Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in Dec. 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labeled as Streets & Alleys, and date from 1852-1932.
The original order of these documents was not maintained. In arranging this series, the resolutions were grouped alphabetically together by the street name; therein, chronologically. Documents without a date are filed before those that have dates. These resolutions provide information on the opening, grading and paving of streets, alleys, and sidewalks, and on their use and maintenance, including street cars, traffic regulations, and installation of telegraph poles. The papers have been categorized into five sections: Financial Reports, Streets (alphabetical and numerical), Alleys, Sidewalks, and Subject Files.
The Reports section consists mainly of monthly financial statements of money spent by the committee. The reports are in chronological order and date from 1874-1895. Information available includes cost of materials and labor as well as names of many persons hired to complete the work.
The Streets section (1852-1932) contains information about the opening and paving of individual streets. Papers which pertain to only one street are filed alphabetically by street name. Numbered streets are filed separately, in numerical order. Resolutions for street improvements sometimes involve only one or two streets, while at other times they consist of blanket resolutions authorizing the opening or paving of many different streets. As a result, all of the available information about a specific street will not necessarily be found filed under that street name. Further data may be found in files that cover cross streets, as well as in the chronologically arranged general streets file which contain papers with information about more than one street. Generally speaking, information dating prior to 1880 will be filed by street name. After 1880 resolutions tended to include more than one street so it becomes more important that researchers also check the general streets file. Data available in the streets series includes street opening, paving, grading, and sidewalks.
Note: all the documents pertaining to specific streets have been filed by street name, while papers with information on many streets have been placed in the general streets file. The same pattern or arrangement has been followed for topics other than street openings. For example, a document relating to the installation of sidewalks on Main Street is filed under the street name, while an item that authorized sidewalk installation on half a dozen streets is filed under sidewalks.
The Alleys section contains information on the opening, paving, and grading of alleys. The alleys are described either with the legal description of the block (i.e. Block 5 of Esperson and Burns Addition to the city of La Crosse), or in terms of the block bounded by specific streets. Other topics which occur in the alleys series generally relate to obstructions such as barns and other outbuildings blocking the alleys. The documents in this series date from 1857-1932.
Resolutions in the Sidewalks section (1860-1932) deal specifically with the construction and maintenance of wood and concrete sidewalks. They are arranged in chronological order. Other information about sidewalks can be found in the streets series under the name of the specific street.
The Subject Files contains information on a variety of areas which fell under the jurisdiction of the streets and alleys committee. Topics include additions to the City of La Crosse (i.e. Mons Anderson addition); boulevard trees, Courthouse Square (1863-1889); curbs & gutters; equipment, highways, paving and maintenance, public utilities (mainly telephone), street fairs, names and numbering; streetcars (1887-1928); traffic regulations; and miscellaneous.
