Work crews demolish the Darboy Club, which closed in June. Merilee Leitzke photo
Work crews demolish the Darboy Club, which closed in June. Merilee Leitzke photo

DARBOY — The building that was home to the Darboy Club, a landmark venue for weddings, banquets and class reunions, is coming down.

Photos of the demoliton were posted Tuesday by Merilee Leitzke to the Kaukauna Community Facebook group.

The hall on County N in Harrison has been in business for 57 years, but competition from newer halls and changing tastes have finally caught up.


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They closed June 30, 2019, according to owner Mark Tatro.

“We don’t have enough business to stay open,” Tatro told the paper. “Our weddings are next to non-existent. We can’t survive on two (public) days a week, on Friday fish and Sunday brunch. We’ve got a big place. We need to have two or three weddings on a Saturday to stay alive and it wasn’t happening,” Tatro told the Appleton Post Crescent.

Couples who had booked their receptions at the Darboy Club were notified that they were canceled, setting off a scramble in the Fox Valley for brides wanting to book a new venue.

Tatro said his six full-time employees and 80 part-time employees were affected.

The property was purchased in April by Bayland Buildings, Inc., which is tearing down the building to make the site easier to re-sell for development, according to WHBY.

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By Dan Plutchak

Dan Plutchak, born and raised in Kaukauna, is cofounder of Kaukauna Community News.