5005 Washington Avenue (Racine, Wisconsin)

5005 Washington Avenue is a building on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Perry Avenue in Racine, Wisconsin, currently home to a Town Bank branch. The address was originally the location of a motel and lounge that opened in 1962, known first as Holleb House, then Clayton House, and finally Apple Valley Lodge. The motel closed in 1989, and was demolished for an expansion of the neighboring Westgate Cinema in 1990. After Westgate Cinema closed in 2006 and was demolished in 2017, the address was revived with the construction of a Town Bank branch on the site in 2018.

History


With the construction of the Perry Avenue Water Tower in 1930, the Racine Water Utility acquired what would become the site of 5005 Washington Avenue, Westgate Cinema, and the West Racine Post Office. In March 1961, the Papas-Spheeris Company, owners of the Westgate Outdoor Theatre, announced plans to build Westgate Family Center, a 100000 sqft discount department store immediately north of the theater. Although Spiro J. Papas owned the land extending north to Washington Avenue from the theater, his plan required purchasing land west of Perry Avenue from the Racine Water Department for part of the store's parking lot. The Water Department agreed to sell the land for $27,750. By July 1961, Papas had come to an agreement with the Chicago-based Jewel Tea Company grocery store chain, which would open its first department store in the new building. The planned store was downsized to 90000 sqft, allowing a larger parking lot in front of the store and making the land purchased from the Water Department unnecessary for parking. Instead, Papas announced that this land would be used for a motel, with 65 to 70 units and a possible attached restaurant.

Charles Holleb, an insurance executive from Glencoe, Illinois, took over development of the motel. On October 3, 1961, the motel received approval from the city of Racine, as well as the first tavern license ever granted in West Racine, an area of the city notorious for its opposition to alcohol. The Grange Avenue Methodist Church, whose new building was under construction immediately west of the motel site, attempted to block the tavern license on the grounds that the city of Racine prohibited taverns within 300 feet of a church, but the church was outside of Racine's city limits at the time and the prohibition did not apply to them. The Holleb House Motel opened on December 27, 1962. The attached Golden Lantern restaurant and cocktail lounge opened on January 16, 1963, alongside the motel's grand opening ceremony. Holleb House became the first motel in Racine to have a swimming pool.

Holleb sold the motel to Claydon Associates in June 1963 and it was renamed Clayton House, after one of the company's four owners, Clayton Rautbord, president of the American Photocopy Equipment Company in Evanston, Illinois. The building's architect, Leon Brin of Denver, Colorado, sued Holleb in September 1963 over nearly $6,000 in unpaid expenses; they settled out of court in April 1965. Papas announced plans for a two-screen indoor movie theater immediately next to Clayton House on May 22, 1967. The new building, intended to be finished by the end of the year, was designed by William Riseman Associates of Boston, Massachusetts and Camburas & Theodore of Chicago, Illinois. Cinema I and II, later known as Westgate Cinema, opened on May 29, 1968. Clayton House became a campaign stop during the 1968 Wisconsin Republican primary, with presidential candidates George Romney visiting the motel in February and Richard Nixon speaking there in March. In August 1969, Clayton House was the site of negotiations between American Motors Company and United Auto Workers Local 72.

Strike negotiations between the city of Racine and American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 67 began at Clayton House on January 27, 1975, and ended without an agreement on February 11 when the city's team walked out. The Racine Unified School District and the local teachers' union, the Racine Education Association, held similar strike negotiations in March 1977. In November 1977, the motel announced plans to expand the building, adding another 50 rooms, but this expansion was ultimately never built. In 1979, a partnership headed by Ali Yusuf and based in Oak Brook, Illinois acquired the motel's lease from Claydon Associates and began operating it. The Yusuf partnership took over operation of the attached Golden Lantern restaurant on September 27, 1982.

In June 1983, the city of Racine began collecting a 4% monthly room tax from hotels, but Clayton House failed to pay these taxes for several months, owing about $4,000 by March 1984. Although the Yusuf partnership argued that it was unable to pay the tax because only 20 to 30 percent of its rooms were occupied on a typical night, it began paying the tax in January 1984 and agreed to pay all its overdue taxes by the end of March. The partnership then defaulted on its mortgage to Spiro Papas' widow Constance Bacantain, who retained ownership of the property, and Bacantain's trust filed for foreclosure against the partnership in June 1985. Around 1985, the Golden Lantern restaurant closed and Rumors Lounge took its place. On July 5, 1986, two girls aged 8 and 7 nearly drowned in the swimming pool, and were narrowly saved by a bartender and a bar patron. The older child later died of her injuries on September 3, and the parents of both children filed a lawsuit against the motel management. The families were ultimately awarded damages of $420,000 on January 11, 1988.

Joe Terrell took over management of the motel from the Yusuf partnership on May 11, 1987, and renamed the property Apple Valley Lodge. Terrell promised to renovate the building and raise the motel out of the budget category, allowing it to become profitable. By that time, after under-reporting its tax obligations for several years, the motel owed $14,080 in unpaid room taxes, leading Terrell to consider purchasing the property from the Papas trust. Additionally, the Papas trust owed $55,850 in delinquent property taxes on the motel building to Racine County, making the trust the sixth-largest property tax debtor in the county according to a September 1987 report.

By 1988, Terrell and the partnership operating the motel owed $400,000 in unpaid taxes to the city and county and unpaid rent to the Papas trust. A legal judgment that year gave the partnership a deadline of March 14, 1989 to repay its debts, after which the Papas trust would repossess the lease. Unable to pay, Terrell began laying off employees in early 1989 and closed the Apple Valley Lodge and Rumors Lounge on March 12. In a Racine Journal Times editorial, Terrell argued that despite the best efforts of himself and his employees, legal problems that prevented his planned renovations made it impossible for the business to survive. Within days, the closed building was heavily vandalized, which was discovered by authorities after a minor fire allegedly caused by teenagers setting off bottle rockets at the building on March 29. The abandoned motel building was purchased by Marcus Corporation, owners of the neighboring Westgate Cinema, in May 1990. Marcus demolished the building by September 1990 to begin construction on an expansion that added three new screens to the theater.

Westgate Cinema closed in 2006 and was demolished during the summer of 2017. The address 5005 Washington Avenue was revived after the demolition, by a branch of Town Bank that opened in a new building on the northeast corner of the site on May 1, 2018.