Our History
The Meadowood Neighborhood Association (MNA) was organized on July 11, 1958, with the purpose to “work for community betterment” and to “promote fellowship.” To this end, the Association works for the Meadowood neighborhood by sponsoring activities for residents, civic involvement, and representing the neighborhood with the City of Madison, Dane County and other organizations to benefit Meadowood residents.
Our organization was originally called the “Meadowood Community Club” in 1957 by residents of the new Meadowood neighborhood which was then being built. The group changed its name to the Meadowood Community Association in 1967 and later updated the name to the Meadowood Neighborhood Association. In 2014 the Meadowood Neighborhood Association voted to incorporate as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is now Meadowood Neighborhood Association, Inc.
We invite you to participate in MNA. A household can join for $10 per year! We welcome you to attend our Board meetings and to volunteer to help with neighborhood activities. Please contact us with any questions or comments regarding MNA or the website.
MEADOWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION MEETINGS
First Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m.
Send an email to MNABoard1@gmail.com for a Zoom link.
For the most up-to-date information, “Like” our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Meadowood.Neighborhood.Association
Meadowood Then and Now:
A New History Project by the Meadowood Neighborhood Association
Did you know that in 1958…
-NASA was established, and launched the first US satellite
-The Barbie Doll was introduced
-The Microchip was invented
-The world's population was under 3 billion
-The Meadowood Neighborhood Association was established!
The world has changed a lot in sixty years, and there is nowhere that these changes can be seen better than in our own little corner of it. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Meadowood Neighborhood Association is launching a project called “Meadowood: Then & Now”. We are looking for any and all neighbors who have stories they would like to share about living in the neighborhood. Tell us how you have witnessed Meadowood change and grow over the years! We would also like to hear from some of the youth of our neighborhood about what it's like to grow up in the Meadowood of today. Stories will be shared in future editions of the Meadoword, as well as on our website www.meadowoodneighborhood.org.
So join in the conversation! Did you buy a house in a brand new Meadowood back in the 60's? Raise a family in the 90's? Are you a teen with a story about what growing up in Meadowood has meant to you? Whether you are from one end of the Meadowood time-line or the other, we want to hear from you! Let's come together to celebrate all the changes that have made our neighborhood the great place it is today!
To participate, please contact the board at mnaboard1@gmail.com.
Get to Know Your Neighbor: Dottie Loehrer
On a windy and snowy day in April, I had the privilege of meeting with one of the founding members of the Meadowood Neighborhood Association, Mrs. Dorothy “Dottie” Loehrer. Dottie has lived in Meadowood since 1956, when there were only four houses on her street of Crabapple Lane. Dottie said she moved to Madison from Green Bay to attend nursing school, and after she and her husband married they were looking to move into something new and bigger. The house she still lives in is where she raised her four children, three girls and one boy. Dottie said the biggest change she has seen in the neighborhood has been the growth over the years. When she moved in, Dottie said, the south side of Raymond Road was corn fields, owned by the Sharpe family. There was no Orchard Ridge Elementary or Toki. And her daughter recalled the dirt piles at the end of Cameron Drive, where houses and an apartment complex now stands.
In 1958, Dottie and another half dozen or so neighbors began what was then called the “Meadowood Community Club”. The initial motivation was a desire to get together and get to know other people in the growing community. The community club, with Dottie at its head, coordinated a host of activities including dinner and dance parties, the Fourth of July picnic and bike parade, ice skating parties, a Christmas decorating contest, and the bingo party, which MNA still continues today. I was most impressed to hear about how at Christmas time, Dottie personally sewed costumes for twelve Santas and twelve elves, who then walked the neighborhood delivering fruit, candy and, in later years, small toys. This was not only a favorite activity of hers, but of the neighborhood as well.
I asked Dottie about her hopes for the Meadowood Neighborhood moving forward. Her biggest hope was for a sense of togetherness in the community. People are so busy, she said, she feels like the desire to know one another is losing importance. She hopes to see more community activities, and a renewed push to get to know the people in our little corner of the city. Not a surprising request from the woman who began fostering that sense of community sixty years ago.