Tag Archive | Stoughton

Stoughton Coffee Break Festival in Stoughton

Oct16

8-20-16   Third Saturday in August

Stoughton sign

This was our first Coffee Break Festival in Stoughton in Mandt Park.  This community believes themselves to be the originator of the coffee break, and they celebrate that every year in August.

The show also has a car and motorcycle show, also some tractors.  Despite to cool, rainy weather, 80 cars were still entered.

Tractors atStoughton Coffee Break festival

Motorcycles at Stoughton Coffee Break festival

Enjoy some highlights of the festival!

This year coffee from 6 roasters were available for tasting.  Purchase a mug to sample your coffee, $6 for this blue mug sponsored by Conant Automotive. Or $15 for a fancy hand-painted mug with a rosemaling design.

stoughton-coffee-break-festival-tasting-mugs

Stoughton Coffee Break Festival mug 2013

coffee-ballot-at-coffee-break-festival

We of course have enjoyed Berres Brothers and Door County Coffee and Tea, but have not had the other ones until today.

Berres Brothers

Berres Brother Coffee in Watertown

Door County Coffee and Tea

Door County Coffee and Tea

Links to:

Back to the Bean

Malabar Coast Coffee

Farmer Brothers

True Coffee

It was difficult to choose, but we did!  Malabar was the big winner!  See all the winners below.

stoughton-coffee-break-festival-winners

Learn more about this festival and many more at the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce.  We have fun every time we visit this Norwegian community. Uff da!

Velkommen banner Stoughton

Stoughton Historical Museum

Jun17

5-16-15

Stoughton Historical Museum

We were in town  to celebrate Syttende Mai and found out their historical museum was also open. It was closed the other times we visited. This is the 2015 hours.Stoughton Historical Museum hours

 Historical markers on site.

Stoughton markerPlaque on Stoughton Historical museum

There are two floors to explore here, so many interesting artifacts. This is a bedroom display.

The Bedroom display at Stoughton Historical Museum

The Parlor

The Parlor at Stoughton Historical museum

The Kitchen

The Kitchen display at Stoughton Historical museum

 Some homes even had a Rosemaling room. Such a beautiful art form!

Rosemaling Room at Stoughton Historical Museum

A Schoolhouse 

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An instrument we were familiar with since we saw it at the McFarland Larson House, the Psalmodicon.

Psalmodicon at Stoughton Historical Museum

Here is a display of native dresses, called bunads.

Norwegian Bunads

One of the best things we saw here, a 1925 fire truck!

Stoughton Fire Truck 1925

There is so much here to see, a great place to visit any Saturday between mid-May to Labor Day.

Stoughton’s Annual Syttende Mai Festival

May30

5-18-14 and 5-15-15

Stoughton sign

We love coming to Stoughton and we were glad we could come to one of their biggest festivals of the year.  Syttende Mai is a celebration of Norway’s Independence Day, this year is their Bicentennial!  Norway became independent of Denmark on May 17, 1814.

We arrived downtown to a festive city,  Norwegian flags and people wearing native clothing everywhere.  We even see a street sign put up just during the festival.

Syttende Mai signVelkommen banner Stoughton

Stoughton downtown Opera House

 We visited the craft fair first and saw so many wonderful items for sale!  My favorite was GiftWorksPlus, specializing in picture frames, and they can make custom! We plan on getting some!

Tie Dye clothes

GiftWorksPlus booth Stoughton

After visiting the craft show we headed back downtown to visit the store, Nordic Nook. I got a Syttende Mai T-shirt there.

Nordic Nook Stoughton

We got settled in for the big parade at 1:30. What a great parade! So many interesting floats!

Syttende Mai parade Stoughton

The King and Queen of 2014, also the Prince and Princess.

Syttende Main King and Queen 2014

Prince and Princess of Syttende Mai 2014

Even a float from Jefferson for their Gemeutlichkeit Days festival.

Jefferson Parade Float at Syttende Mai 2014

You’ll never guess who was in the parade, Vi Bergum 🙂 We have seen her at so many of the festivals we attend. She is in her 80’s and so full of vim and vigor.

Vi Bergum Stoughton

Stoughton parade float

Mt. Horeb Sons of Norway float

What a wonderful parade, we had a great time helping Stoughton celebrate their homeland’s independence.

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We came back in 2015, this time on a Saturday and saw other events. On Saturday is the youth parade, a bit shorter than the main parade on Sunday. Still fun though, as you can see by all the smiles.

Smiling crowd at Syttende Mai 2015

The Prince and Princess of 2015.

Prince and Princess of Syttende Mai in 2015

The kids at Pumpkin Patch Preschool were so cute!

Pumpkin Patch Preschool float at Syttende Mai 2015

After the parade we enjoyed a performance by the Norwegian Dancers from Stoughton High School. Very skilled in the traditional dances, they are preparing to compete in Norway next year! Lets watch them perform one of the crowd’s favorite dances.  Uff da!

Norwegian Dancers at Syttende Mai 2015

Olé and Lena hope you come back next year!

Ole and Lena us Stoughton

Summer 2013

Sep2

May – Augustraisin bran reflector 75x75

Wow, what a great summer! I don’t think we could have packed much more in. Wisconsinites tend to start summer in May since there is so much going on and warm days don’t last long. We were no exception. Our summer began May 13 with our trip to Cedarburg.

grist-mill altered

May 16 – Milwaukee sightseeing 

 

May 18 – Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival.

signTame big ones

May 27- World’s Largest Brat Fest

Brat Tent

June 1 – Cows on the Concourse  and Cars on State Street

Cows 001100_9388

June 11 – Paoli and Stoughton

6-11 090Chicken Heads

OH 3 Clocktower CenterCoffeeBreakMug

June 15 – Cottage Grove (Fireman’s Festival)

Cottage Grove Wisconsin signFlynn Hall

June 20 – Waterloo

WatertowerIMG_7617

June 23-Cedarburg  and Hartford

June 28 – Pendarvis and Shake Rag Alley

Mineral Point Pendarvis House

Mineral Point Pendarvis House

6-30 Sauk City  Wollersheim Winery

6-30 2816-30 684

7-4 Independence Day in DeForest

DeForest WI DepotDeForest July 4th Parade 2013

7-8 Marshall

Blaschka Mill

Blaschka Mill

Marshall Wisconsin Train Track

Marshall Wisconsin Train Track

7-13 Le Fete de Marquette and Art Fair on/off the Square

Ferris WheelLa Fete de Marquette Festival picture

7-18  Madison Mallard’s Baseball  and Waunakee

Waunakee Depot and train

7-22 Oregon

Downtown Oregon Wisconsin

7-27 Greek Fest , Clean Lake Festival and Atwood Summer Fest 

Greek Assumption Church MadisonPericles Productions

7-28 Fennimore

Fennimore Railroad Museum

8-3 Middleton Mustard Festival

National Mustard MuseumDuchess de Mustard and us

8-9 Algoma and Green Bay and Rosendale

Algoma lighthouseGreen Bay Packer Game

8-10 Susie the Duck Day in Lodi

Susie and Maynard

8-15 Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival

Freshly steamed corn40600164

8-18 Triangle Ethnic Fest 

8-23 Orton Park Festival

Orton Park GazeboMarquette Waterfront Festival dancing

8-24 Town of Burke Picnic 

8-25 Circus World Museum

Circus World Museum Hippodrome

8-31 Taste of Madison

Fraboni's Italian Specialties

Whew!  🙂

 

Taking a Coffee Break in Stoughton

Jun20

June 11 &14-2013Banner 802

6-11 2856-11 294

We had not really spent time in Stoughton before, so it was time for a visit.  We stopped first at the Chamber of Commerce to gather information. It’s in the train depot. The historical museum is there also, we learned a lot here. The city is well-known for its strong Norwegian heritage, their cultural festivals reflect that. The Norwegian art form, Rosemaling, is prevalent here. We also learned the coffee break was invented here. They have a festival every August to celebrate.

Stoughton has four official Historic Districts,  we were in the Main Street Historic District. We explored here first.

6-11 326CoffeeBreakMug

On the right is an antique store.

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You never know where you will find interesting people, just talk to them 🙂  We saw an open door in one of the buildings with a group of retired gentleman enjoying a relaxing morning. The invited us in to look around. They made birdhouses and were also making a large model airplane.  One of the men showed us a wood planer his grandfather had made around 100 years ago. They also GAVE us  bird house, wouldn’t accept payment. Here were a couple of cute items in the window.

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PlaneNorwegian Tax ShelterNorwegian 2 Holer

We soon arrived at the Stoughton Opera House,  Event coordinator Christina Dollhausen gave us a tour. We were so impressed, we were back Friday (June 14) to see “Honor Flight: The Movie” being show there one night only. The Opera House looked real beautiful at sunset.

6-14 evening 2

Other buildings up the street. We walk over the Yahara River that flows under the city.

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At the end of the street is the rather impressive Senior Center located by the river.  Across the way is the mural at the top of the page.

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Just off Main Street is the Sons of Norway lodge and the Stoughton Historical Museum.

6-11 772Stoughton Historical Museum

We had a great couple of visits so far. More later after exploring the other historic districts.

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Stoughton Opera House – A Great Venue!

Jun14

6-11-13

Velkommen to Stoughton!

Stoughton is a city of 12,000 fifteen miles south of Madison. What a beautiful city!  It boasts 4 historic districts. The Stoughton Opera House is located in the Main Street Historic District.  It’s most striking feature is the tall clock tower that can be seen all the way down Main Street. A prominent landmark in the city, the Opera House was constructed in 1900-01.  It had fallen into disrepair and neglect in the 1980’s and the city decided to restore the building.  The end result is enjoyed by the public now with many performances throughout the year.

OH 3 Clocktower CenterOH tower distant

OH 5 Sign cropChristina Dollhausen

We met with the Opera House Event Coordinator Christina Dollhausen. She was very kind and gave us a tour.  The beauty of the building was breathtaking!  We went into the auditorium first. The seats are the originals, made of mohagany, all restored. They are a little hard for a long show so bringing a seat cushion is recommended.

Stagefront Center

The view was even better from the 3rd floor, and she turned on more lights to bring out the blue trim going around the edge of the stage.

OH Stage 3rd Floor

The light fixtures really add an elegant touch as well.  Here is one of the wall sconces up close. Fleur-de-lis and bouquets accent the light. The biggest wonder though is the huge chandelier overhead.  Because of the difficulty involved, the light bulbs are only changed yearly.

Light fixture cropChandelier

We then went backstage and saw the “graffiti” left by performers long ago.

Graffiti 1

The view from backstage looking towards the audience is just as impressive.

Stage Forward

We had a great tour, and recommend to anyone to come visit.  Christina or other staff will be happy to give you a tour also.  Stoughton has a lot to offer to residents and visitors alike. Come here for a show!

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