The founding and development of the Waldemar Ager Association and the Eau Claire museum it operates will highlight a program on Monday evening (Sept. 30)
The event is scheduled for 7 p.m.at the Waldemar Ager Museum, 514 W. Madison St. in Eau Claire. It is free and open to the public as part of the celebration of the association’s 25th anniversary.
In 1993, Luther Hospital intended to raze the Red Carpet, a house on Chestnut Street that had once been Ager’s home. Ager, a Norwegian immigrant who came to Eau Claire in 1892, was a journalist, an active local citizen and a writer of novels and short stories here until his death in 1941.
To save the house and preserve Ager’s legacy, interested local citizens formed a nonprofit association. Its goal was not only to preserve Ager’s work but also to restore, preserve and use the building for the study of immigrants to the Chippewa Valley and the contributions they have made here.
In the course of several years, the house was restored. Now listed as a Landmark building, the house includes furnishings Ager would have used, a catalogued research library for visitors and scholars and a basement meeting room.
A few of the Ager Association’s founders will speak on Monday about their memories of the early days—the paperwork, the carpentry, the necessary architectural modifications, and the effort to decorate the house to represent Ager’s era.
Refreshments will be served.