As many of you know all too well, owning an older home comes with an array of joys and challenges. I've experienced the joy of owning an older Bayfield home that was once owned by my Grandparents and their memory lives on within its walls and that is something I greatly cherish. So what are the challenges?? This past summer, I completed a task I've been dreading for years...clearing out my attic! My Grandma and Grandpa lived through the Great Depression and as many others who have done so, their tendency was to save most things they've ever owned.
Fortunately for me, the majority of their saved items were limited to the attic. For a number of years, I felt as though what was out of sight was out of mind. Unfortunately, this was the year I was going to have to deal with the dreaded attic. With last winter's harshly cold temperatures in Northern Wisconsin, my roof developed ice dams causing water leakage within the house. In the image below, you can see the ice developing on the window from water leaking through the soffit...not good!
The insulation in the attic was nearly 60 years old and thus, virtually useless. Quite honestly, the ancestral keepsakes covering every square foot of the attic was likely the more effective insulation than the flattened fiberglass that was laid down 60 years ago. Well, the time had come to get into action and begin the process of digging through the contents of the attic and deciding what was worthy of hanging on to and what was destined for the dumpster.
I felt like I was tasked with deleting a storage drive containing files in which 95% were outdated and useless, while there was a hidden 5% worth hanging onto. It was a tedious task which took a couple of weekends to complete, but in the end was overwhelmingly relieving. The attic was ready to be freshly insulated and that project was completed later this summer and will (fingers crossed) lessen the likelihood that the ice dams will reoccur this coming winter.
Through this entire process, I was able to open up a time capsule disguised as an attic. I found a few interesting keepsakes but one that I am treasuring more than most, because it was a completely unexpected find and is a real piece of history for the place I love most in this world, Bayfield, Wisconsin.
"Blueprint for Bayfield" is a self-described design study for preserving and enhancing the scenic quality of a Great Lakes community. Printed in 1969, it was already widely known that new economic growth was on the horizon as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore would be established the following year. Understanding that hundreds of thousands tourists would be traveling to the Bayfield area annually, a well thought out plan was needed to be established to avoid the sprawling, chaotic development seen in many other high traffic tourist destinations which can potentially desecrate the very scenic features tourists originally came to see.
It's pretty clear that this blueprint was extremely important and a tremendous turning point for the town so many of us have come to love. I'm very thankful for the citizens who took the time to develop this study as they were so forward in their thinking in making certain Bayfield was to grow intelligently while its unique character was maintained through the following 20 or 30 years and beyond.
A good number of specifics planned out for the foreshadowed multiple phases of development came to fruition such as development of the Big Ravine Trail and details of downtown improvement, but there were some that most definitely never made it beyond discussion, such as a Second Ward Development which would have created what looked like a subdivision, complete with cul-de-sacs, north of Washington Avenue mimicking something you'd find in a suburb of a larger metropolitan area.
Also discussed was a Highway 13 relocation that would have re-routed highway traffic from 6th Street to 9th Street and from Rittenhouse Avenue to Washington Avenue, completely by-passing downtown Bayfield's main street. Obviosly, I think most of us can agree that these suggested changes would not have been to the greater benefit of our beloved Bayfield, but the fact that brainstorming sessions occurred and were discussed thoroughly among a prudent group of caring residents leading up to this late 1960's study demonstrates this city's long history of protection and preservation. Overall, I found this a very fascinating read and fortunately, you can also read it in full as I was able to locate complete digital copy of this comprehensive plan (along with other plans throughout Bayfield's history) here on the City of Bayfield's website. I encourage each and every one of you to check these out so you can view Bayfield though the eyes of inhabitants of yesteryear.