The Blueprint
- The Passenger Lounge opened inside Fond du Lac‘s historic 1891 train depot with live music.
- The venue features regular jazz, blues and open jam sessions with local and visiting musicians.
- Owners Mike Peterson and Melissa Hill spent years restoring the former railway station.
- Future plans include outdoor events, food truck partnerships and additional business tenants.
FOND DU LAC, Wis. — As the season ramps up into summer, live music events are picking up at new venue The Passenger Lounge, 105 S. Brooke St.
Owners Mike Peterson and Melissa Hill bought the historical train depot in 2020 and transformed the space to support live music, private events and much more, holding its first concerts in the beginning of the year.
Local musicians and visiting acts alike have provided entertainment so far with the dedicated stage and specialized sound measures, all while the audience can enjoy beer, non-alcoholic drinks, cane sugar sodas, kombucha and more from the bar.
Among the musicians, The Passenger Lounge has residency groups to play on the regular with special guests, according to Peterson. This includes a jazz group, headed by Kurt Shipe, on the first and third Thursday of every month, then blues with Tony Wagner to fill out the alternate Thursdays.
On Sundays, musicians are invited to sign up for Junction Jam, a structured take on open mic night with a house band to back up participants. Sign-ups are usually about a week in advance, with options for which songs to play and which instrument they want.
“This way, when people come in to play, instead of having 20 people showing up hoping to play, you get the five show up that are going to play,” Peterson said.
Building dates back to height of Fond du Lac’s rail history
The Chicago and North Western Railway Company built the depot in 1891 as a main stop for the most significant rail line in eastern Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin State Historical Society. The company’s shops were also significant to the growth of the village of North Fond du Lac.
Dwight D. Eisenhower made a stop at the depot as a presidential candidate on the way to Green Bay during his whistle-stop campaign tour in 1952.
While passenger trains started to fade out in the 1960s, the route from Green Bay to Chicago stopped in 1971, picking up the last passengers in Fond du Lac April 30.
Modern history of the depot involved J.J. Krueger buying the depot in 2004 to showcase vintage memorabilia, with his son Jesse taking over the shop in the early 2010s.
Restoration was a long and thorough process
Peterson had wanted to open a music venue for years, and with this building, he could envision how he would pull it off.
For a little while, he said the work involved mainly “stopping the bleeding,” addressing holes in the roof and the crumbling foundation after the building sat empty for years. When the city made the necessary approvals in 2022, however, the real work could begin.
“Every little piece of the building had to have some attention to some varying degree,” Peterson said.
The design matched the aesthetic and craftmanship of the original building, blending in the newer elements like the bar, stage and bathrooms.
Trains are still a motif throughout the building, even reflecting in the venue’s name: the audience sits in what used to be the depot’s passenger lounge, and the logo matches the old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad logo.
Future opportunities include outdoor space, additional tenants
Restoration of the depot will continue on some of The Passenger Lounge’s off days, with more work to include expanding the parking lot and working on the grounds. Peterson said he hopes to incorporate some events outside, such as car shows, art fairs or outdoor entertainment with the potential for food truck partnerships.
“I think we could really bring the block alive with a handful of events a year,” he said.
The building also has additional space opposite The Passenger Lounge that has opportunities for future business tenants to rent.
Outside of the residency players on Thursdays and Sundays, Fridays and Saturdays are dedicated to more music acts or private events.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source finance-commerce.com ’
