Old Ashland Post Office
601 West Second St., Ashland, WIBecause of the old post office's prominence in Ashland, its structural material, and its architecture, the building's local significance is unquestioned. Architectural historian Richard W. E. Perrin characterizes it as almost traditional as a landmark in the city of Ashland.
When it was built in 1892-1893, the post office was certainly one of the finest buildings of its kind in northern Wisconsin. Its design is credited to Mr. Eldebrook, who was an architect for the federal government. The general contractor was Forster and Smith, of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and the local superintending architect was H. P. Padley, of Conover, Porter, and Padley, the Ashland branch of the Madison architectural firm of Conover and Porter.
The brownstone of which the structure is built was in much demand as a building material in its day. It was used in several major buildings in Ashland, in numerous buildings in Wisconsin cities along Lake Michigan, and in buildings in some of the larger inland cities of Wisconsin as well. It was quarried on Chequamegon Bay, principally near Washburn on the mainland and on at least one of the Apostle Islands
The city of Ashland, to which the ownership of the property reverted when a new post office was erected in the late 1930s, has no city hall and proposes to convert the old post office building to adaptive use as its municipal building.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
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.