Waukesha museum to receive historic mud bath scale
Waukesha - A vintage floor scale used to measure mud used for spa treatments at the Moor Down Mud Baths - a building now occupied by the Waukesha County Health and Human Services Department, where the scale stands in a boardroom - will be handed over to the Waukesha County Museum.
Museum President and Chief Executive Officer Kirsten Lee Villegas asked County Executive Dan Vrakas last week to donate the mud scale, which dates to use in the early 1900s, to the museum's collection.
Vrakas said Monday he has agreed to the donation. However, he is still weighing the museum's request to also donate a nearly 9-foot-tall statue of "Lady Justice" that once stood atop the old courthouse in downtown Waukesha, now home to the museum. The statue was moved to the current courthouse in 1972 but in the past few years has been out of view in a maintenance office. Conservation specialists are scheduled to evaluate the sculpture for needed repairs on Wednesday.
Muddy history
The health and human services building was founded as a resort in 1911, and a few years later a golf course was added. Real estate agent John Weber owned the land and had been unable to sell it for development because of soil conditions. Instead, he built a hotel and invented a couch for giving mud baths, with mud drawn from the surrounding area, according to a State Historical Society report.
Between 1925 and 1947, over 130,000 people received the mud treatment, according to the historical society. The hotel was sold in 1946 and the mud baths closed in 1961. In 1962 it became Mount St. Paul College, and in 1972 the county bought it and has used it ever since as an office building. A new health and human services center is to be built on adjacent land, and preliminary utility work is under way.