The Warehouse is an all-ages no alcohol concert venue that opened its doors in 1991, in a 134-year old building at the core of the National Register Historic District in downtown La Crosse, WI, a river city of 50,000 on the banks of the Mississippi.

Since 1991, the Warehouse has played host to over 12000 bands and other live acts, gaining a great reputation for being one of the most unique places to see live performances in the Midwest.
Rarely will you find a venue that shares it’s unique architectural design and it’s history.

The young adults that frequent the Warehouse come from all over the Midwest, for the opportunity to see bands in a much more intimate environment than in larger cities. Many bands on their way to the top have played the Warehouse. On any given night you could watch Nine Inch Nails, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Everclear, Mudvayne, Covenant, Dark Tranquility, Veruca Salt, Brand New, Descendents, Static-X, Melvins, Dead Milkmen, Wookiefoot, Psychostick, Pigface, Gravity Kills, or thousands of other bands.

Getting those kinds of bands to play a small venue in little La Crosse WI is no small task, but the friendly environment, unique history, and great concertgoers have drawn in bands who would normally drive right by.

As a no-alcohol venue, The Warehouse has committed itself to offering alternatives that are just as interesting as alcohol, and is well-known for its variety of sodas and other beverages from around the world.

 HOW DID THE WAREHOUSE GET STARTED?

The Warehouse began as an unlicensed underground dance club in 1991, opened by 5 guys who thought there was a market for late night dance music, highlighting the newest European dance tracks on vinyl. The venue was open only on Fridays & Saturdays, from 10pm-4am. While it might have worked in a major market, they quickly found out that when the bars closed, the people who showed up to dance were the ones who were too drunk to go home. After 6 months the quintet gave up on The Warehouse.
But two of the group had an idea for something for younger kids, and they rented the space from the landlords with the agreement that all they needed to do to maintain a reasonable rent was to bring the building up to code. Having no idea what that meant, the 2 poured all of their life savings into electrical work, bathroom work, drywalling, building a stage, building a seating deck, building a soda bar, painting, sanding floors, etc, reopening as an all ages dance venue open on Fridays and Saturdays from 8pm-midnight.
The need for a place that kids could hang out was so great that there were lines to get in every weekend. The 2 took the money that came in on the weekends and continued fixing up The Warehouse, even though they did not own it. When they first moved in, a lot of the buildings on Pearl and 4th were empty. So it seemed unlikely that they would have to give up the place.
As they expanded to a 3rd night of dancing each week, this one with "alternative" music (everything from ska to punk to grunge to goth to industrial), there was pressure from locals to add live music. In 1992 they did that, starting with one or two shows a month.
But the City of La Crosse had begun fixing up the downtown, with new sidewalks and antique streetlights, and the once empty buildings had begun filling up. The owners of the building put it up for sale, and the two guys running the Warehouse had to convince buyers that they shouldn't purchase the property, while behind the scenes they were trying to get a loan to buy it themselves.
Denied by every bank in town (a loan for an all ages venue? Ha!), they gave up as the owners gave them a deadline that was only a couple weeks away: Dec 26.
During that time a group of the kids who regularly came to the Warehouse for the alternative dance nights wrote a letter to the local newspaper, and that letter was published on Christmas. It highlighted the fact that these alternative-music fans were shunned in many other establishments, and that they needed the Warehouse to have a place to be themselves and be accepted. On the morning after Christmas on the deadline the landlords had given, a local bank (who had originally turned down the two for a loan) called and offered to work something out. A deal was struck, but one of the partners backed out at the last minute, leaving current building owner Stephen Harm to take on the responsibility himself.
Harm pulled together a volunteer crew of local kids and musicians at expanded the amount of live music at the venue. The venue's location in a city on Interstate 90, a main artery that runs from Seattle to the East Coast, made for a great stopping over point for "grunge" bands that were driving to New York from the Pacific Northwest, to showcase for record labels. Harm and the staff spent several years proving that the Warehouse could produce legitimate professional shows, and booking agents started including the Warehouse in all of their tours.
The rest is DIY history, as the small venue in the middle of nowhere became the favorite place to see live music in the Midwest for many concertgoers. A wide variety of sodas replace standard venues liquor and beer, and excited young music fans replace standard venues drunk patrons. Bands love being able to play for people who came to hear them, instead of drunks who are at the venue incidentally.
While not the biggest or the flashiest, the Warehouse has a reputation of having a soul of true music appreciation.

WHAT WAS THE BUILDING BEFORE IT BECAME THE WAREHOUSE?

In 1888, German-American businessman Michael Funk built the 3 story 16,000 sq ft commercial building on the corner of 4th & Pearl St in downtown La Crosse. Built at a cost of $12,000, the building was home to a general store and blacksmith shop on the first floor. Signage in a turn of the century photograph of the building shows that you could go in and purchase a "Hot Bath" for 5¢.
The 2nd floor was a series of professional offices: a realtor, an attorney, a real estate agent, and also a dentist office.
The third floor was available to rent for events like wedding dances.

After the Continental closed on the first floor, it went through a series of other clothing stores, and became a rubber stamp shop (largest in the Midwest) from the early 1990s until the late 2010s. The 2nd and 3rd floors were cut off from the buildings boiler system in the 1970s and basically abandoned.
The owners of the building, a real estate holding company from Minneapolis, was using the building to create a write off and had no interest in fixing it up or even maintaining it. When the guys from the Warehouse came in (1991) many windows were without glass, birds and squirrels had free reign, plumbing was shot, radiators were blown, roof leaks were the norm, and there was even a beehive in the stairwell.
It is believed that had the Warehouse not started and the building remained vacant, in a couple more years there would have been so much damage that the building would have fallen down.

 WHO WAS MICHAEL FUNK?

Michael Funk came to America from Germany in 1852 at the age of 21, and settled in Chicago where he worked as a nailsmith, then as a boiler maker.

While in Chicago he learned English, eventually gaining his US citizenship.
After 13 years in the Windy City he relocated to La Crosse, establishing the La Crosse Boiler Works in 1865. The LCBW was an important institution on the Upper Mississippi River, where train transportation helped the business grow and expand it's reach. He incorporated the business in 1887. 
In 1888 he had a commercial building built on the corner of 4th Street & Pearl Street, at a cost of $12,000.This was not a building for the Boiler Works, it was a commercial building built as an investment. He continued to run the operations of the La Crosse Boiler Works, retiring from active management in 1906.
During his time in La Crosse Mr. Funk was an officer and Director at the Listman Mill Company, and helped start the La Crosse Rubber Mills, where he was an officer and a Director as well. He also was a Director of the Batavian National Bank on Main Street, one block over from the Pearl Street building.Mr. Funk was not related to the other La Crosse Funke family, who ran the Funke Candy Company.
Mr. Funk and his wife Anna had 12 children.