Racine Arts and Business

We met Emily in this massive building, about 400,000 square feet, for breakfast at Chéz Bob's Café.  We each enjoyed eggs, meat, potatoes, toast, Emily ate from a baggy of carrots.  She explained that she is careful with her diet. The Café is the social center of the building.  Bob knows everyone and puts people together to accomplish tasks they cannot accomplish alone. 

History of a building

The building complex evolved beginning in 1865, the year the Civil War ended.  Originally it was built for transportation construction and housed the Racine Wagon and Carriage Company, which built the entire vehicle there; mixing paint pigments for the finish, installing upholstery, cutting wood for the spokes of the wheels and such.

From 1916 on it was the Racine Business Center, and since 1944 it has been owned by one family.  It was used for a variety of other purposes including the manufacture of carpet cleaners under the names of HOST Dry Extraction Carpet Cleaner and VonSchrader Manufacturing.  Racine became known as the center of the “fractional horsepower electric motor” world and small kitchen appliances and electric tools were manufactured in the building. As time went on, and as manufacturing was outsourced primarily to the American South, the number of factories dwindled, though local manufacturers still represent about half of the tenants in the building.   Artists have been invited in for the partitioned open spaces, great light, and very competitive rents.  There are about 60 artists in residence and we met several.  They hold an annual Christmas show and it has been growing in popularity.  The manufacturers and artists appear to get along well; each adding value to the other.

Emily and Peter in the History Display Room - leaning on a 19thc sleigh made in the building

Emily is a booster.  She not only promotes the building and the tenants, but she promotes the City of Racine.  There is a museum in one corner of the building that includes one of the original buggies and an original sled that was built there.  It also has steamer trunks, small electric motors, carpet cleaners and a whole host of paperwork, maps and photos.  As the corner of the building is well lit the display is attractive and compelling.

What puts the curve in the candy cane?...a Racine Machine

Away and Back Again
Emily was not always a booster.  Like several other people with whom we have spoken, she observed that Racine has a self-esteem problem.  She moved away; first to Bozeman, Montana where she and her husband were living “poor as church mice.” At one point, her parents were visiting and her dad was out fly fishing with her husband. They talked and her dad made her husband a very good offer so they moved back to Racine. Emily came “home” kicking and screaming.  Then her sister was diagnosed with cancer.  Emily believes that everything happens for a reason and while her sister’s illness and death was extremely hard, they had a chance to spend her final months together; a blessing.

This almost tore her family apart, hitting her father particularly hard.  He and her mother moved to South Carolina.  Emily and her family, now including five children, moved to a farm outside Minneapolis and later to a log cabin on 40 acres in the wilderness outside Duluth.  Life was not simple, but looking back these were ideal locations to raise children.  Emily homeschooled her children because she wanted them to have a “magical” childhood and this worked well for all.  In the end each child had a tailored combination of home and institutional schooling.

Regarding beliefs and religion: As a child Emily's family attended St. Luke's, a downtown Episcopalian church.  Today she describes herself as religious but does not believe in a traditional church.

Health and Healthcare
During this time Emily was diagnosed with cancer, the same general type that had ended her sister’s life.  After surgery, Emily chose to use alternative medication instead of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  The treatments were difficult, but she credits the fact that she was not taking poisons (thus carrots in breakfast baggy) for her survival, now 16 years later, long enough to declare victory.  Her experience colors her perspective on the healthcare debate.  She envisions not “sickcare” as she calls what currently exists, but rather “healthcare,” out from under the thumb of the pharmaceutical industry.

One of the problems with living on a 40 acre parcel that neighbored homes on even larger lots, was that it was difficult to access services.  In addition, her father still wanted her to come to Racine where she would be close to medical care and could possibly be involved in the operation of the building.   She visited Racine again in 2008 and discovered that it had benefited from a renaissance of sorts.  The North Beach area (a stretch of beach and dunes just north of downtown) had gone from something that was polluted and damaged into a nice place to visit.  Downtown which had been run down and scary was clean, roads and sidewalks repaired.  She looked around Racine and decided that “I could live here!”  This came as a surprise to her, and to her entire family. They moved back.  Her husband manages the building and she comes in two days a week as her youngest is in high school now.

Divisions and Hate

Emily  tells us she does not follow politics.  Her father is very politically active and she has stayed away.  She credits him with encouraging  her, throughout her life to think independently.  She found that since  the election of Trump, particularly her progressive, anti-Trump friends are “blinded by their hate.”  She has had to “unfriend” some friends  because she feels their comments are destructive.  She believes that  people are too angry now and that somehow that has to stop.

Purpose in Life

She is thrilled with the building; it has a decidedly community feeling, centered around Chez Bob, but includes interactions between fractional motor manufacturing companies and visual artists.  Emily recounts a story of one of the printmaking artists bemoaning the fact that her print table is not quite level (in the 150+ year-old campus) at Chez Bob’s one day.  When she got back to her studio there was a technician from one of the manufacturing businesses with the tools necessary to level the table.  Problem solved!  She loves building up the art community.  She refers to her “purpose” here in Racine. We ask her to describe that purpose.  When we ask her what that purpose is, after a pause she says: “Help make Racine an art destination.”

-- Dave