100 North Appleton Street

Appleton, WI 54911-4799

www.appletonwi.gov

City of Appleton

Meeting Minutes - Final

Historic Preservation Commission

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

3:00 PM

Council Chambers, 6th Floor

Call meeting to order

Vice Chair Meissner called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m.

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll call of membership

6 -

Present:

Meissner, Dougherty, Peterson, Gaerthofner, Helmbrecht and 1st Alternate

Thorson

Others present:

Christine Williams, 1037 W. Oklahoma Street

Tom Flick, Deputy Director of Parks & Recreation

Tom Boldt

Jennifer Stephany, Appleton Downtown Inc. and Creative Downtown Appleton Inc.

Approval of minutes from previous meeting

26-0330

HPC Minutes from 7-16-24

Attachments:

HPC Minutes 7-16-24.pdf

Peterson moved, seconded by Dougherty, that the Minutes be approved. Roll

Call. Motion carried by the following vote:

6 -

Aye:

Meissner, Dougherty, Peterson, Gaerthofner, Helmbrecht and 1st Alternate

Thorson

Public Hearing/Appearances

26-0331

Public Participation

Jennifer Stephany and Tom Boldt spoke on the proposed State historic marker

text honoring Harry Houdini.

Action Items

26-0333

26-0334

26-0335

Elect Chair

Gaerthofner nominated himself for Chair. No other nominations were received.

Gaerthofner was elected Chair by unanimous consent.

Elect Vice Chair

Meissner nominated himself for Vice Chair. No other nominations were received.

Meissner was elected as Vice Chair by unanimous consent.

Set Meeting Date and Time

The members agreed to keep the meeting date and time as it currently stands at 3:00

p.m. on the Tuesday preceding the 2nd Council meeting of the month.

26-0336

26-0332

Designate Contact Person

Director Kara Homan was designated as the contact person.

Request to review and approve the proposed State historic marker text,

or request revisions as needed, for the proposed State historic marker

sign honoring Harry Houdini located in Houdini Plaza at 121 W. College

Avenue (Tax Id #31-2-0065-00 and 31-2-0067-00) as described in the

attached documents

Attachments:

StaffMemo_WIHistoricMarkerSign_Houdini_For3-17-26.pdf

Houdini Historical Marker in Houdini Plaza Proposal.pdf

Houdini Plaza Historical Marker Map.pdf

HoudiniHistoricalMarker_ModifiedProposedLanguage_Received3-16-26

.pdf

Amended to add the birth year and death year (1874 - 1926) on the top of the marker

before the text starts, change the word "four" to numeric "4" in the 1st sentence of the

2nd paragraph, "... when he was 4 years old" and in the 3rd paragraph change the 2nd

sentence to add "and his wife, Bess" so it reads, "In 1897, he and his wife, Bess

performed at the Appleton Opera House.", subject to the Wisconsin Historical Society

review process.

Gaerthofner moved, seconded by Meissner, to amend the motion to add the

birth year and death year (1874 - 1926) on the top of the marker before the text

starts, change the word "four" to numeric "4" in the 1st sentence of the 2nd

paragraph, "... when he was 4 years old" and in the 3rd paragraph change the

2nd sentence to add "and his wife, Bess" so it reads, "In 1897, he and his wife,

Bess performed at the Appleton Opera House.", subject to the Wisconsin

Historical Society review process. Roll Call. Motion carried by the following

vote:

6 -

Aye:

Meissner, Dougherty, Peterson, Gaerthofner, Helmbrecht and 1st Alternate

Thorson

Modified proposed amendments to the historic marker text language dated March 16,

2026 were provided to the Commission and are attached.

Meissner moved, seconded by Dougherty, that the proposed modified State

historic marker text language dated March 16, 2026 be recommended for

approval as amended. Roll Call. Motion carried by the following vote: