Tucked between East
Washington Avenue, Miffin, Ingersoll and Few streets is a little street called
Curtis Court. The street is one block long and eighteen feet wide and its claim
to fame is that it is the back door to the eastside landmark, the Avenue Bar.
Little more than an alley,
the street has eleven residences housing some forty people. Five of the homes
are owner occupied, the others are rental properties. The street has been home
to many long time residents who’ve lived into their 80s and 90s. The street
even has a park bench dedicated to two longtime residents, Nellie Smith and
Pearl Rust.
The Avenue Bar has also been a long time resident and
neighbor of this street. The business has been here since the 1970s. It is a
family run business originally owned and operated by Skip and Claire Zach and
now by their son Paul. Dinner at the Avenue Bar is certainly a neighborhood
tradition for many eastsiders including the residents of Curtis Court (and
really has become a famous landmark in the city of Madison).
Skip and Claire Zach and Paul
Zach and family have served up more than meals on Curtis Court. Because of them
Curtis Court has ever so gradually been transformed from a very ordinary street
to a street with trees and a terrace.
In 1994 some Curtis Court
residents, helped by then Alder David Wallner, developed a plan to plant trees
and shrubs on Curtis Court (the street at that time had no terrace, no trees,
just a sidewalk and asphalt).
Other businesses and neighbors contributed as well but the Zach’s
contribution provided significant support. Finally in the spring of 1994 the
street became home to six linden trees and a terrace of other plantings. The
trees and the greenspace are much appreciated by those whose homes face this
street and to passersby as well.
Skip, Claire, and Paul have
continued their commitment to the neighborhood as they purchased another
property at 1138 E. Washington which borders Curtis Court. With the purchase of
the parking lot there was the need for landscaping; the landscaper thought this
would be a “straight forward parking lot project.”
The neighbors saw it
differently. They saw it as an opportunity to plant more trees and create more
greenspace. The Zachs in their commitment to the neighborhood welcomed that
vision. Paul Zach arranged several meetings between the landscaper, former
Alder Barbara Vedder, the neighbors, and Bob Shaw, an eastside
horticulturalist. The plans for this “straight forward parking lot project”
bloomed. The lot went from having only four green ash trees to eight trees. The
choice of trees was discussed, finally allowing for having a variety of trees.
Now there are two Regal elms,
two Norway maples, and the original four Patmore green ash trees plus plantings
of American highbush cranberry bushes, alpine currents, and yews. This fall the
trees went in with great excitement to the neighbors. An asphalt lot was
transformed. Eight trees and swatches of earth now ringed this lot.
As neighbors of Curtis Court
and the Avenue Bar we want to thank the Zach family for being committed to the
neighborhood, for being interested in its improvement, and for contributing so
generously to making the neighborhood more livable. We appreciate the trees and
the green space so much. We wish the trees long life and thank the Zachs for
being a neighbor to our neighborhood.
Postscript: Those of you who
might visit Curtis Court because of this article, please don’t judge our trees
too harshly. They are beautiful but recently the city crews came down Curtis
Court giving the trees some pretty severe “haircuts” to benefit the trees(?)
and to protect them from truck traffic(?). Brian Miller, our eastside city
forester who has been very helpful over the years, assures me that they will
fill out and regain their full beauty. So until the city figures out how to
have less traffic and more space for trees, we’ll have to accept that. Do come
and visit Curtis Court though. Welcome the trees. Appreciate our veteran trees
of seven years and thank the Zachs and other businesses of Curtis Court,
-Jeff
Reinke and Karen Banaszak