National Register Listing

West Second Street Historic District

a.k.a. NR Control Nos. 1017733800;0126820049

W. 2nd St. from Ellis Ave. to 6th Ave., Ashland, WI

Built primarily between 1884 and 1937, the earliest and latest dates for significant contributing buildings, the West Second Street Historic District is an architecturally significant collection of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial and governmental buildings designed by significant local, regional, and federal architects in the leading Victorian era styles that range from the vernacular Romanesque Revival or Italianate styles to the monumental Richardsonian Romanesque style and richly ornamental Neoclassical Revival style and including the bold Art Deco style. Erected during Ashland's significant years as the leading manufacturing, industrial and shipping city, as well as the county seat for Ashland County, the brick, brownstone, and clapboarded buildings share a very cohesive unity of scale, material, and exuberant detail and style that is unmatched by any other northwestern Wisconsin city. The distinctive quality of architectural design that clearly separates the district from its surroundings reflects the economic prosperity and significant commercial role of the district during its period of significance. Historically significant as the commercial center for Ashland and surrounding counties, Ashland's West Second Street district provided the region with a variety of retail, cultural, governmental, and financial services. Today this role remains as strong a key to the region's activity as it did at the turn of the century. Fortunately, the historic and architectural integrity of the district is very well preserved, exhibiting the prestige its citizens, financial leaders, and architects were able to contribute to the district throughout its period of significance from 1884 to 1937.

Local significance of the district:
Commerce; Architecture

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

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.