Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association Home History of the Old Third Ward History of the Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association Protest in the Form of Art Old Third Ward Neighborhood Association Documents Newsletters Streets (includes buildings) How Old Are the Homes in the Old Third Ward? Ghost Buildings Neighborhood Features People Houses on the National Register of Historic Places Acknowledgements

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Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau City of Appleton Historic Hearthstone House Museum History Museum at the Castle Fox Valley Genealogical Society (FVGS) Outagamie County WIGenWeb Appleton Historical Society

Contact the Old Third Ward

601-603 S. Walnut St.
Street number prior to 1925: 427 and 425 Walnut

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Adam Mertes and his family arrived in Appleton in the late 1840's and were the first German Catholics. They welcomes worshipers into their home for mass before the first Catholic church (St. Mary's Catholic Church) was established.

The Mertes family built this large Italianate home in 1871. In 1889 John Adam Mertes and Miss Josephine Mertes lived at 603 (then 425.) The 1925 Appleton city directory lists Louis M. Stenger living at 601 and Karl Schuetter at 603.