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Located within the Stanley-Boyd school district in a minimal flood hazard zone per the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, property taxes for the prime commercially- zoned property taxes at 100 North Broadway Street totaled $107 for the year 2020. But while it might not look like much today the parcel included in the original platting of Stanley with downtown anchor site business potential once had quite the interesting past. For proof, we appeal to Badgerlink!

‘Historic Hotel to meet wrecking ball,’ the front page headline read for March 31, 2005. Owned by Chippewa County at the time, the site was reportedly going to be sold after being razed to the ground.

“As I see it it’s the end of an era,“ then-Mayor of Stanley David Jankoski was quoted as saying of the 110-year-old building then at the address. “It will bring sadness and leave a hole in Main Street.” Now 16 years later, that hole remains, but also the opportunity for new construction, with city water and sewer capabilities present at the site.

As to the old construction, the end of the Hotel Royale ultimately came after Chippewa County took ownership in 1997 for unpaid back taxes and an offer to buy the building by Jeff and Deb Makovsky in order to save it fell through. The Makovskys, owners of Rustic Resale and Consignment, later went to Thorp with their consignment-based small business, now located on North Washington Street in said community. Once that deal fell through, the county took back over and demolished the building turned eyesore, the assessment and demolition work financed through a $100,000 Brownsfields Site Assessment Grant, according to the newspaper article from that time period. After being demolished, the site at 100 North Broadway Street has remained vacant ever since, similar to the site of Dodge School on Stanley’s Fifth Avenue, tom down on the premise that it would be used to help provide parking for the hospital then located adjacent to it.

Back in its heyday, meanwhile, the Hotel Royale of Stanley on North Broadway had it all, including an opera house, bar and restaurant. Owned by two men named John Klauck and William Sattler who were married to sisters, the Hotel Royale began life as an Opera Hall which could reportedly seat 600, according to the Daily Independent of September 12, 1897.

“The hall has a seating capacity of 600,” the Independent notes of the “largest and most handsomely furnished amusement hall in the county, outside of Chippewa Falls.” That wasn’t all though.

“The stage is extra large and filled up with all the necessary theatrical apparatus,” the Independent goes on.” The hall has been recently renovated throughout and is in splendid condition,” with a refreshment station just adjacent to this. It didn’t take long for the Stanley Republican to get in on the reporting when it came to town and debuted locally on Saturday, May 16, 1896.

“Mr. Klauck’s new building is four stories on the ground,” the news from the “ABOUT TOWN” section of the third issue said on May 30, 1896. “The addition or annex on the north end of Klauck and Sattlers is to be a barber shop for Ed. Moore,” the local update went on. Meanwhile, there were issues with the nearby railroad. “And still the limited train rolls haughtily by as if there was no such place as Stanley,” the ABOUT TOWN” section went on, closing, “It cannot always be thus.” A six-year-old stowaway from Thorp “on the blind baggage” was returned home by the authorities, where a maternal discipline was awaiting, or so it was speculated. So what will the now vacant site at 100 North Broadway become when sold, as being on the market for investment?

For that, we await a sale and redevelopment.