The Pixie Club
The Pixie Club served as the site of many a social gathering in Couderay, including wedding receptions, dances and smaller events. I don't yet have a photo of the outside of the building, part of which still stands along Highway 27-70, on the west end of Couderay, but am working on it.
Nancy Breezee (formerly Johnson), originally of Couderay, remembers that Perry and Velma Apfel sold the Keystone Bar to John Bornheimer on April 28, 1945, then purchased the Casino Dance Hall, located near Stone Lake.
"Perry, my Dad (Clarence R. Johnson), and Charlie Allison from Charlie's Bar, along with his son-in-law, did the labor of transporting the building to Couderay." she recalls. "My Dad took his chainsaw and sawed the building into three sections. He started cutting the building at the ground, cutting up the wall, over the roof and down the other side, making smaller sections to move.
"The men then moved all three sections to the current location in Couderay from Stone Lake. Dad, Charlie and Perry assembled the dance hall. The story is that no one could ever tell where the building had been cut with the chainsaw and reassembled by Clarence Johnson.
"Dorthy Christenson, from Northwestern University art Department, drew the Pixie Girls in the Dance Hall.
"Perry and Velma held their Grand Opening on the Labor Day weekend of 1946, featuring Irv Williams & His Ten-Piece Ex-Navy Orchestra, with vocalist Judy Perkins."
Ted and Corabelle Scharlau (my grandparents) and Liza and Ed Anderson relaxing at the Pixie Club, mid-1960s.
A group of Couderay teachers at one of the Pixie Club tables -- from left, Bud and Betty Atwood, Principal Parkhurst, Dolores Dygart, Loretta Reda, Dolores Sanders.
Thanks to Nancy Breezee, who shared her memories of the Pixie Club!