Brodhead Historical Society Receives Restoration Grant

The Brodhead Historical Society (BHS) has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Milwaukee Road Historical Association’s Emil Skok Restoration and Preservation Fund for help in restoring the Society’s Milwaukee Road caboose. The caboose is currently on display along with a Milwaukee Road locomotive at the Depot Museum in Brodhead.

The caboose, built in 1941, is a surviving example of Milwaukee Road’s “rib side” cabooses built in their Milwaukee shops between 1939 and 1951. Used throughout the Midwest, #01900 was retired from service and donated to the Brodhead Historical Society in 1983. It remains in near original condition inside and out. The needed restoration work funded by the MRHA includes new windows, paint, lettering and other repairs.

The Milwaukee Road Historical Association is a nationwide non-profit group of volunteers dedicated to preserving the history of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, known to most as “The Milwaukee Road.” The Emil Skok Restoration and Preservation Fund provides grants to help preserve Milwaukee Road equipment and structures. The Brodhead Historical Society grant was one of only two awarded in 2005.

The Brodhead Historical Society was founded in 1976 and is housed in the former Milwaukee Road depot in Brodhead. A new exhibit this year features a Victorian-era parlor of the 1890s and a sewing and seamstress exhibit. Early greeting cards, trading cards and paper dolls are displayed on the walls in the hallway. There is an extensive permanent railroad exhibit as well as a display of the historic Civil War 1st Brigade Band that included 18 men from the Brodhead Band who enlisted in the Union Army. There are also farm equipment and cheese-making exhibits.

Hours are 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays through Sept 28. Group tours are available at other times. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. For more information, call 608-897-2549.

(BHS press release)