Sister Bay Historical Society Builds Path to Future with Campaign

Tom Sadler carefully installs one of the commemorative bricks at the Sister Bay Historical Society commemorative brick walkway outside the farmhouse at the Corner of the Past Museum in Sister Bay.

In 1998, volunteers with the Sister Bay Historical Society got on their hands and knees to lay a pathway leading to the front door of the Old Anderson House, considered to be the cornerstone of the Corner of the Past Museum in the village.

In the 17 years since, that pathway has ushered in hundreds upon thousands of residents and visitors interested in learning more about the history of Sister Bay. For the past five years, it has also become its own historically significant part of the museum with the creation of the “Building A Path to the Future” campaign.

The campaign invites individuals, families, organizations and businesses to purchase engraved commemorative bricks that will take the place of the standard bricks already in place. The purpose of the campaign is twofold: to raise funds for the historical society, and to preserve family names in the area. So far, it has proven successful in both areas.

Tom Sadler, longtime historical society member and brick project leader, recalls when the society made the decision to turn the walkway into something more.

“We looked at the walk, which was put in by volunteers back in 1998, and we thought, ‘This could be really neat if the bricks in there could be exchanged for those that are engraved,’” Sadler said. “It would bring another facet to the Corner of the Past. This would be preserving history too.”

Sadler has been guiding the endeavor ever since. The first year of the campaign was a huge success, with the society putting in an order for 60 bricks. In the years since, the number of orders has tapered off but remained steady. To date, they’ve sold approximately 160 bricks, half of which came from Sister Bay residents and the other half from throughout the Midwest and as far away as South Carolina and Texas.

The commemorative brick walkway leading to the Corner of the Past Museum in Sister Bay offers individuals three different sizes to purchase.

“There is so much connectedness for people, even if they never were around or knew who put things together, they still feel a real sense of pride and ownership,” society board member Pat Wisner said.

“The house is the real cornerstone of the property,” she continued. “And the names we see on the brick path, some of whom we’ve lost through the years, are the people who really knew the history of the (Anderson) family. It’s a wonderful link in a commemorative kind of way to have these people still fresh in the minds of people who come to Corner of the Past.”

Although Bill Lippert was the foreman who oversaw the volunteers putting in the original walkway in the late 90s, it is Sadler who gets on his knees to pull the old bricks and put in the new.

“Tom, being one of the youngest and most agile, gets to do a lot of this work, a lot of the heavy work,” Wisner said with a laugh.

The bricks are held together with sand and the time-consuming process of removing them is akin to the messy and frustrating process of cutting out that first piece of pie, but as Sadler said, “Once you get one out, you’re in good shape.”

The Old Anderson House in Sister Bay.

There are three different sizes of bricks available for purchase: the standard 4” x 8” brick (three lines of print); 8” x 8” (six lines of print); and 16” x 16” (12 lines of print). Orders have been used to memorialize family and pets, as another form of display for businesses and organizations, and as a family’s show of support for preserving history. Bricks must be ordered by the society in batches, so commemorative brick requests may be held until a suitable number of orders are accumulated.

“With the size of the walk, there is a lot of opportunity,” Sadler said. “This could go on for a long time. It’d be nice to fill the whole thing.”

For more information, call 920.854.7680 or visit SisterBayHistory.org/buy-a-brick.