Would there be a Holiday Inn at Harborview…45 years ago?

By the fall of 1972, La Crosse had torn down more than 60 buildings near the riverfront to make way for an urban renewal project called Harborview.  One potential tenant of the plaza was Holiday Inn, which already had a motel on the pike.  There was also talk of putting up high-rise apartments, or new department stores.  Redevelopment Authority director Charles Parrott had gotten word of a tentative $20 million to $30 million project, which could start construction in 1973.  New buildings including the Radisson didn’t actually open at Harborview until around 1980.

Catholic women who wanted to participate in mass and other church rituals weren’t getting anywhere with the pope.  Paul VI barred women from having a part in church ceremonies, saying it was the church’s tradition to reserve those roles for men.  The pope also defended celibacy for priests…again, because of tradition.
 
“M*A*S*H” was one of the new TV series starting in the fall of ’72.  Other debuts included “The Waltons,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Maude” with Bea Arthur, and “The Bob Newhart Show”…the one with Suzanne Pleshette.  We said “Hi, Bob” 45 years ago, 1972, yesterday in La Crosse.