Ashland County Courthouse
a.k.a. 1030741846;1020751833;0502783014;1031771749;0902712;02047721
201 W. 2nd St., Ashland, WIA Neoclassical design executed with the severity of the Beaux-Arts Style, the Ashland County Courthouse is a fine representative of a period of construction, Appropriately, the building is faced with locally-quarried sandstone, and was designed by locally-significant architect Henry Wildhagen in association with Milwaukee architect Herman W. Buemming. A native of Hanover, Germany, Wildhagen (1856-1920) was trained at the University of Hanover and came to the United States in 1886. After designing sulphite mills for several years, Wildhagen opened an architectural office in Ashland. For nearly thirty years Wildhagen practiced in the city and throughout northern Wisconsin, and may well have been that area's most significant architect to date. Wildhagen is best-known for his impressive Richardsonian Romanesque and NeoClassical designs. Works listed in the National Register include the Bayfield Carnegie Library, the South Shore Public School in Port Wing (demolished, 1981), and the Wilmarth, Beaser, Ellis, and Ashland Middle Schools.
Aside from its significance as a fine (and then progressive) local landmark, the Ashland County Courthouse is also a pivotal element in a potential commercial historic district in the center of Ashland.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.