Bank of Memories & Flowers Building History
One of the
most historically significant buildings in downtown Menomonee Falls is the C.W.
Fraser Building located at the corner of Main Street and
Appleton
Avenue.
The
building was designed by Charles C. Anderson, a prominent Waukesha architect,
and was constructed by Cameron W. Fraser, a local business man, the editor and
publisher of the Menomonee Falls News, and a former Waukesha Country
Clerk of Courts. Erected for speculative purposes in 1901, the Fraser building
is the Village’s finest example of the turn-of-the-century commercial type
building designed in Romanesque Revival style architecture.
The Fraser
building housed several important Village institutions, including the
community’s first bank—the Citizen’s State Bank of Menomonee Falls—the Post
Office, the office of the Menomonee Falls News, and the Menomonee Falls
Telephone Company. In these capacities, the Fraser building functioned as the
communication hub of the Village for several decades.
The
building was remodeled and restored in 1988, with more recent remodeling
completed in the fall of 2004. The second floor of the building is currently
occupied by Capital Dental Lab. The first floor is the home of the Bank of
Memories & Flowers, a full-service floral and gift shop. One of the original
bank vaults has been transformed into a fresh flower walk-in cooler and the
other vault which still has the original vault door hold storage. Owner
Melissa Maas enjoys giving tours to her customers. There is also a small
collection of the buildings historic memorabilia displayed at the shop.

Original
Builder
Mr. & Mrs.
C. W. Fraser on their
back porch
of their Main Street home.