Casino Bar nominated to list of La Crosse’s endangered buildings

An updated Top 10 list for La Crosse’s most endangered buildings.

Members of the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission seem to have reached a consensus on three new buildings going on the list for 2022, including the Casino Bar on Pearl Street, which was damaged by a fire in February of 2021.

Two neighboring buildings in the 600 block of South 4th Street, including the home of Amanda’s Academy of Dance, would also be included as one entry on the list.

Panel member David Riel said during a public meeting Thursday the effects of the Pearl Street fire went beyond the Casino, such as “the fact that those buildings are all kind of connected together, they share walls. When the Casino was damaged, part of the Brothers building next door was damaged.”

La Crosse Senior Planner Tim Acklin of the commission doesn’t want to see the popular bar fall into ruin.

Acklin said there’s “a very high possibility (the Casino) could still come down, depending on what happens, and the more it sits there, with damage done to it, the more likely it could just come down on its own.”

Two of the buildings on the 2021 endangered list already have been demolished — the Marble Works building and the Club Tucan. Both were on South 3rd Street. The other buildings from the 2021 Top 10 endangered list will transfer over to 2022.