Marshfield Central Avenue Historic District

Marshfield was a quiet forested area until 1872. In that year, the Wisconsin Central Railroad cleared a path up through the woods to lay rails, choosing a relatively easy spot to cross the low ridge that runs from north of Marshfield to Neillsville—a spot that would become the city of Marshfield. Anticipating the arrival of railroad workers and later commerce, Louis and Frank Rivers built a rough two-room log building that served as a hotel, tavern, and store in a clearing just north of the right-of-way, on the spot that is now the parking lot behind Casa Amigos. This crude structure among the stumps was the first building in what would become Marshfield.^[4]

The town grew quickly and was platted in 1875, with streets aligned to the railroad rather than the points of the compass.^[2] This early prominence of the railroad explains why Central Avenue was laid out running from southwest to northeast. By 1875, the town had 22 wooden buildings. In 1878, William and Charles Upham built the town's first sawmill and a general store. In 1883, Marshfield was incorporated as a city and by 1885, the population was nearly 2000. To his sawmill, Upham added a planing mill, a furniture factory, and a flour and feed mill. Other businesses sprang up selling groceries, ready-made clothes, crockery, jewelry, beer, fresh-baked bread, furniture, and coffins.^[5]

The main business of the early railroad was transporting lumber from the surrounding forests and from forests to the north.^[6] Upham's sawmill cut some of the lumber into boards and shingles.^[2] Wood was plentiful, cheap, and quick to build with, so many buildings in the new city were constructed from it. As such, Central Avenue was lined with frame stores with boomtown fronts and wooden cornices. The street itself was unpaved and often muddy or dusty, but wooden boardwalks ran in front of the stores.^[7]

On June 27, 1887, a fire started in the Upham plant just south of the tracks. The day was hot and windy, and the fire spread into Upham's piles of drying wood. The limited firefighting tools were not enough to suppress the fire, which engulfed Upham's factory complex. The sawmill was fed from a millpond where Miller Park now stands, and even the logs floating there caught fire.

The fire destroyed the railroad depot, then moved down the lines of wooden buildings on Central Avenue. Men tried dynamiting some stores to create a break in the fuel, but the fire swept through the rubble and jumped the gaps. By the time it had burned itself out, every commercial building in town except one had been reduced to ashes. There were no deaths, but it was a disaster for the young city.^[8]

The day after the fire, Upham announced that he would rebuild his factories. Learning from the fire, the city required that new buildings on Central Avenue must be clad in fireproof materials.^[2] Reconstruction began almost immediately, with some businesses setting up temporary wooden shacks in front of their lots, so that they could continue to operate while their stores were being rebuilt in brick.

Many structures built immediately after the fire are still standing, especially just south of the railroad tracks where the business district began. They include:

• The Thomas House Hotel at 103 S. Central is a three-story brick hotel building on the prominent corner of Central Avenue and the Wisconsin Central's rail corridor—now also the Veterans' Parkway. It features attractive brickwork on both public-facing sides and Italianate styling. Details include segmentally arched hood moulds over the windows and an elaborate cornice that wraps around the corner. The cornice has bands of brick at different levels and some set diagonally. The door at the northwest corner was set at 45 degrees and flanked by cast iron pilasters. The 1887 fire destroyed an earlier hotel called Travelers Home on the same site. After the fire, this Thomas House Hotel operated until 1915. At that point, it was bought by Felix La Pointe and renamed Hotel Juneau. In 1920, it was bought again by C.E. Blodgett.^[9] The building originally lined up with other stores on Central, but when the Parkway was widened, the whole hotel was raised and moved back thirty feet to allow expansion of the intersection.

• The F. Doll building at 107-111 S. Central Avenue is a two-story cream brick building built in 1887 Italianate styling. It has segmental arched hood moulds over some of the second-story windows, and a cornice with a diamond corbel pattern. The building initially housed a furniture store. By 1891, it was split to house a millinery shop and a saloon, with a dressmaker upstairs. These were followed by a grocery upstairs by 1904, then a confectionery shop by 1912.^[10]
• The Noll building at 117-121 S. Central Ave. is a two-story brick store. Its larger northern section was built in 1887, with the southern section added by 1891. The second story windows have the original hood moulds, and the top of the front is decorated with brickwork. A short central parapet bears the name "Noll." Frank Noll initially operated a hardware store in the building, and from 1891 through 1904 he stored agricultural implements in the southern addition.^[11]
• The building at 137-139 S. Central Ave. is another two-story brick store with Italianate styling, built between 1887 and 1891. Its street-level storefront still has the original cast iron pilasters and crossbeam. Above, the second story windows have segmental arch hood moulds topped with keystones. Above these runs a cornice with brick corbelling. The building initially housed a boot and shoe store. By 1912, it housed a saloon, and by 1946 a restaurant.^[12]

• The Thiel building at 301-305 S. Central Ave is another two-story cream brick building, Commercial Vernacular with some Italianate styling, built between 1884 and 1887, but likely after the fire. It sits on a street corner, so has attractive brickwork on two sides, and segmental arches over the second story windows, with a decorated cornice with dentils in the brickwork. It has a stepped parapet which reads "Thiel Building." It first housed a meat shop, with an ice locker in the center of the building, and a general store in the south half. In 1898, a hand-printer was on the second floor. It has also housed a furniture store, a saloon in the rear, and a barber shop. In 1916, the newly-formed Marshfield Clinic remodeled the second story and operated their specialized group practice from it for ten years.^[13]
• The building at 307 S. Central Ave. is another two-story brick building with Italianate styling, built between 1884 and 1887. The windows have hood moulds and keystones, but this building is framed in pilasters, and the cornice is more exuberant than most, with corbels, arcade, and a decorated triangular pediment in the center. A saloon occupied the building until 1898, then a grocery store by 1904. By 1946, it housed a restaurant.^[14]
• The store at 160 S. Central Ave. was also built between 1884 and 1887, and is a two-story brick store similar to others of that era, except that the pilasters that frame the side curve at the top to merge into the cornice. It first housed a bakery, then by 1891 a confectionary shop. By 1904, it was split between a flour and feed shop and a jewelry store, then a barber.^[15]

The east side of the 100 block is remarkably intact; almost the whole block was built right after 1887. Buildings in other places were also constructed right after the fire, but no longer exist. For example, the Wisconsin Central rebuilt its depot, but it burned in 1907.^[2]