The Marquette Neighborhood Association (MNA) formed in March 1968 as the Marquette Neighborhood Group in response to two main events: a landlord on Jenifer Street seeking rezoning of property to build a high-rise and the school board's threatening to close Marquette Elementary School. Members saw the elementary school as vital to retaining young couples in the neighborhood. The city had lost two neighborhoods (Greenbush and West Mifflin to urban renewal efforts), and Marquette residents didn't want to be the third. They organized, formed MNA (by July 1969 it was known consistently as "Association") campaigned the Board of Education to keep the school open and began tackling other issues, one by one, from traffic to commercial revitalization to the redeveloping of the railroad switching yards to eradicating pollution. As of May 2010, MNA remained active and so did many of the same issues. Schools and traffic remained high on its agenda, for example.
MNA worked with residents, city planners, city council and others to improve the living conditions of the area, and bring problems and issues concerning the neighborhood to the attention of those in city government with influence in zoning, traffic, schools and recreation. MNA's primary goal was and continued to be to involve the residents of the Marquette neighborhood in projects and issues to improve the quality of life in the area and the city of Madison. One of the oldest of the city's neighborhoods, it is divided into roughly three sections: the northern industrial strip bordered by East Washington Avenue on the north and East Wilson Street on the south, where the railroad yards can be found; the commercial strip along Williamson Street; and the residential area south of Williamson. (These definitions are not strict: commercial and industrial are intermingled in the northern section; residential is mixed with commercial on Williamson; and changes take place continuously.)
In addition to keeping the elementary school open, MNA achieved down-zoning, was successful in getting through traffic routed off the Jenifer-Spaight-Rutledge corridor and other traffic measures; started Common Wealth Development Corporation, which in turn became a sponsor of the Willy Street Fair; was a co-sponsor of the first Alternate Parade of Homes; and sponsored the annual Orton Park Festival. MNA also worked with the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center to build the Children's Mini-Park, on a joint newsletter, and other issues.
Its early activity put MNA board members in close contact with city officials and boards, other neighborhood organizations, particularly those bordering Marquette (Atwood-Schenk and Tenney-Lapham), and several members were politically active. The collection also reflects the neighborhood's relationship with UW-Madison. While several members were faculty members, and MNA made use of UW coursework and students as a resource, the proportion of housing occupied by students is at times a concern.
Some of the more active MNA board officers and committee members during the time of this collection included: David Mollenhoff, Leigh Mollenhoff, Warren Lehman, Myrna Goikovich, Kenneth Bowling, Fred Heistand, Connie Thompson, Francis Hole, Ken Glasier, Richard Lehman, Warren Lehman, Dick Wagner, and Art Woerpel.
