In 1985, St. John Lutheran Church in Maribel was celebrating several milestones. The year marked 130 years since the church’s founding, 60 years in their present church building, and the recent completion of a large renovation project at their school.

In 1966, a new, modern grocery store opened in downtown Denmark. Known as Larry’s Town and Country Super Market, it was owned by Larry George.

In 1926, businessmen in the growing Village of Denmark decided the village could benefit from a second banking option. Since it was founded in 1909, Denmark State Bank was the only financial institution in the village, so a group of local businessmen came together and formed Badger State Bank.

On the night of September 7, 1988, Denmark experienced one of the largest emergencies in its history. As a Chicago & Northwestern Railway freight train was making its way through the Village, the train derailed after it had just passed the Lake to Lake Dairy plant, sending cars off the rails and forcing an evacuation of nearby residents.  

In Denmark’s early years, the village was a small crossroads community. Very few businesses were located in the town, and not that many residents lived here either. Denmark and Cooperstown, just to the south, were comparable in size. Many houses, churches, the first school, and the town hall were located in the vicinity of what is today West Danish Cemetery, about a mile from the present-day village.

In 1980, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church celebrated a huge milestone in their history: the centennial of the founding of Trinity Lutheran Church, which was one of the churches that merged in 1951 to form Our Savior’s.

The area that now comprises the Village of Denmark was originally part of the Township of De Pere. The Town of De Pere was created by the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature in March 1839.  In the early territorial years, townships and counties were far larger than they are today since so few people lived in the area. The original Town of De Pere comprised the present-day towns of Glenmore, Rockland, Bellevue, Allouez, Ashwaubenon, Lawrence, and Wrightstown.

As Denmark’s population grew in the early 1900s, the school district needed more space to house students. At the time, the elementary school consisted of a small white frame schoolhouse on Wisconsin Avenue which was built in 1881 by Jens Jenson. Unfortunately, it took only a few decades for this building to be inadequate for the needs of the district.

While Cherney Maribel Caves County Park is a popular destination for recreation today, it was not always a publicly-accessible park. The property operated for many years as a health resort, built by Father Francis Steinbrecher, known as the Maribel Caves Hotel. The hotel was modeled after buildings from his native Austria giving it an old-world feel.

In 1906, spurred by the construction of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway through the center of Denmark, Ben Hendrickson built the Union Hotel. The Union Hotel would open in 1907 to accommodate travelers as it was built very close to the Denmark railroad depot.

Zion United Methodist Church has a long history in our village having been formed in 1916, just a year after the village was incorporated.

In 1962, an advisory group made up of local residents was formed to advise the Denmark School District on its future growth and needs. The group, called the Denmark Joint School District No. 5 Citizens Advisory Committee, served an important role to provide much-needed feedback and ideas to the school district administration on the opinions of local residents.

In the early 1960s, crossing the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad at Pine Street in the Village of Denmark was a dangerous feat. Residents complained the view of oncoming trains was obstructed from all directions. Railroad activity had also increased, so more trains were crossing through downtown Denmark.

In 1919, the Denmark branch of the American Society of Equity was formed. This cooperative was formed to purchase the grain elevator from the Kriwanek Brothers which had been built by them soon after the railroad was constructed through Denmark in 1906. 

The first school in what would become the Town of New Denmark was constructed in 1854 at a cost of $79.75. The building was located near West Danish Lutheran Cemetery, and it consisted of just one room with six small windows. The school used rough-hewn planks as seats, and the teacher had a large box to sit on.