Oshkosh Public Library

From 1900 to 1930, the current Washington Avenue Neoclassical Historic District was the city's cultural and social hotspot. This tour's six buildings are remarkable for their architecture, but equally fascinating are the personalities that changed Oshkosh forever. Estimated time: 30 - 40 minutes.

Explore Historic Washington Avenue in Oshkosh, Wis.

Oshkosh was a booming, industrial city following a recession and series of devastating fires.

Thanks for your interest in local history. On this tour, we'll look at the six buildings that established the visual character of the Washington Avenue District and discover more about the people and organizations who built them. Let's go!


By the 1890s, two decades after the Great Fire of 1875 reduced a large swath of the city to ashes, much of downtown was rebuilt and businesses were thriving. 


Where the Exclusive Company Building and parking lot are now, stood a line of two-story brick buildings housing retail businesses and professional offices. As a time traveler to Oshkosh in 1893, you might stop in to Stroud’s Music Company at Number 16, discuss plans for a new hat at Etta Doherty's and Letta Rice’s millinery shop at Number 18, or make an appointment with renowned architect William Waters at Number 20 Washington Avenue.

As the border between the old 2nd Ward, which extended south to the river, and the old 4th Ward to the north, Washington Avenue was primarily residential. Looking east towards Lake Winnebago in 1898, there are mostly one or two-story homes. The air carries the scent of freshly cut timber, while chickens cluck and peck around the yards. On May 16, more than 1500 woodworkers voted to go on strike – a defining moment in Wisconsin labor history. By 1900, one-third of Oshkosh residents spoke German or claimed German ancestry. It was against this backdrop that the social and cultural life of the city was changing. 

"We had a lot of mills and lumber industry booming, and once that was established, I think… there was more of an aristocracy…you had lawyers, politicians, doctors, wealthy business people. With the rise of that upper class… there was more of a demand for these fraternal and civic organizations, institutions. So people wanted buildings that were appropriate and I would say worthy of housing these institutions; it wasn’t going to be residential scale. You needed buildings that were more prominent, permanent, and larger in scale."
--Steven Wiley, City of Oshkosh Assistant Planner 

Starting with the construction of Oshkosh Public Library, a neoclassic architectural revival began to redefine the appearance of the neighborhood.

Oshkosh in 1900

Built: 1900 Style: Neoclassical Architect: William Waters

Although several lending libraries had come and gone since Oshkosh's founding in 1853, plans for a permanent public library didn't begin to materialize until the summer of 1895. 

The estate of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Harris provided the major gift of $75,000, more than $2 million in today's money. Marshall Harris was a prominent Oshkosh lumberman who died in 1890. His widow, Abbie Danforth Harris, who died June 24, 1895, used her will to create a trust fund for library construction and operation. 

Its conditions required the community to match the bequest within three years of her death and build on their homestead. 

 With the donation of $25,000 from former Sen. Philetus Sawyer and a successful bond sale, the city raised the matching funds and met the requirements on June 22, 1898 - two days before the deadline.  

The library opened on Labor Day, Sept. 3, 1900. Designed by local architect William Waters, the building typifies the neoclassical style which was popular at the turn of the century, with its heavily buttressed steps and six, fluted Ionic columns built of Bedford limestone. 


The iconic lion statues, named Sawyer and Harris, arrived more than a decade after the library first opened its doors. 

The appearance of the entrance has also changed over the years. The original design had the steps going straight down to the sidewalk. 

In the spring of 1951, the entrance was redesigned to what you're looking at today.

As Oshkosh grew, an addition was added in 1967. 

But, by the late 1980s, the library was again running out of space for people and collections. Like the Harris' donation, an anonymous donor (later revealed to be Alberta Kimball, President of the Miles Kimball Company from 1949-1980) offered $5 million for construction of a new library building if the city matched the funds. 

Once the city council approved matching funds, design and construction of today’s library building could begin.

Frye Gillan Molinaro, a Chicago-based architecture firm, designed the new building to be visually integrated with the original William Waters' library.

The library re-opened in October 1994 and celebrated its centennial in 2000. 

Built: 1914 Style: Georgian Revival Architect: Henry Auler (Washington Place Historical Flats)

The new Washington Avenue business district expanded with the addition of the Fraternal Reserve Association (F.R.A.) Building, which continued the neoclassical motif that began with the library across the street. 

The F.R.A. was founded in 1902 by several prominent Oshkosh businessmen, including George A. Buckstaff of the Buckstaff-Edwards Furniture Company, local cigar maker and long-time City Clerk Daniel C. Witzel, and former Wisconsin Attorney General Emmett R. Hicks. 

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw an explosion in fraternal organizations. Before the federal Social Security system existed, public aid was minimal and set up to be a source of shame. Many people relied on fraternal mutual aid societies to supply a safety net. 

There were primarily three types: secret societies (such as the freemasons), sick and funeral benefit societies, and life insurance societies. 

The F.R.A. offered insurance and an opportunity to socialize. By 1912, the association had more than 15,000 members in 185 locations in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and South Dakota.

As membership grew, the F.R.A. worked to build a grand new home in the district developing along Washington Avenue. 

In 1913, the association purchased land at the corner of Washington and State, known at the time as the Heisinger property, and began construction.  

Designed by architect Henry Auler, and built by C.R. Meyer and Sons Company, the new headquarters was created to serve the needs of the lodge and local businesses. The first two floors had rental office spaces. The third floor housed the F.R.A. offices and more rental units. The fourth floor had a social gathering space featuring two-story ceilings, a kitchen, a dining room, and parlors for ladies and gentlemen to relax and socialize. 

As you stand in front of the building, the elongated entrance is meant to catch your attention. If you look closely under the transom window, you can still see the words, "Fraternal Reserve Association" engraved into the stone. 

Notice how the triangular pediment supported by scrolled brackets (a common classical feature), echoes the large pediment of the library. 

The windows on each floor have a different configuration, alternating from ground level upward in a pattern: rectangular, depressed arch, rectangular, rounded arch. 

Looking from a distance, the vertical line of windows offers the illusion of two glassed-in arches. This pattern repeats on all four sides of the building.

The architects treated them as buildings in the round in a way. They looked at all of the facades. They didn’t just say, ok, here’s the front façade, we’re going to make this look really good and behind that we don’t care. They wanted prominent structures and they used high quality materials. - City of Oshkosh Assistant Planner Steven Wiley, 2018

 In July 1914, during the F.R.A.'s annual convention, more than two hundred association members attended the building's dedication. 

Speakers included Wisconsin Governor Francis E. McGovern, former Attorney General Emmett R. Hicks, and Wisconsin National Life Insurance Company co-organizer, Gen. Charles R. Boardman. 

In 1930, the association merged with the Equitable Fraternal Union of Neenah, Wisconsin to become the Equitable Reserve Association and the offices moved to Neenah. Following the merger, the building housed a variety of businesses over the years. In 2016, it was renovated into apartments.  

Fraternal Reserve Association

Built: 1924 Style: Neoclassical Builder: Ganther Construction

On the south side of Washington Avenue stands the smallest building in the Neoclassical Historic District. For more than 50 years, this was known as The Goettmann Printing Company.

The building is partially constructed of red tapestry brick and white cement trimmings that mimic the Bedford limestone of the library. 

Although built for trade, the structure features several neoclassical architectural elements that allow it to hold its head high among its more stately neighbors.

The main entry stands recessed in a portico that features a rounded, or Roman, arch flanked by simple Doric columns. 

The rounded arch motif is repeated in red brick on both sides of the entry portico. 

The arches, windows and doorway are all topped by decorative keystones, a neoclassical design element that graces many buildings in downtown Oshkosh. 

The working part of the building, which extends back and to the south of the street, features simple square columns in red brick and keystone window arches in white cement.

The Goettmann Printing Company was founded circa 1911 by Edward W. Goettmann, son of local cigar maker and political figure Michael H. Goettmann. 

By 1914, younger brother Earl would join the company and eventually take over its management. 

The new business occupied several locations around Main Street, most notably on the northeast corner of Main and Ceape Avenue, before new construction plans were drawn up for the Washington Avenue address.

Construction began in 1924 shortly after the Masonic Temple across the street. The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern described the Goettmann building as an “attractive print shop” after its official opening on October 30, 1924.

Company founder Edward Goettmann left the business sometime between 1916 and 1920. 

He worked various sales and manufacturing jobs in Oshkosh and Chicago, briefly taking over his father’s cigar manufacturing business on Ceape Avenue after Michael Goettmann’s death in 1927. 

Edward moved with his wife, Lillian, to the East Coast where he lived until his death in 1975. 

Earl Goettmann and his wife, Ruth, ran the family printing business for more than 50 years, both passing away in 1977. 

Real estate agent Paul Redemann bought the building in 1986, converting the workrooms into office space, while keeping the classical architecture of the building. 

A year later, Redemann received an Acanthus Award from the City of Oshkosh Landmarks Commission for his innovative reuse and restoration of the historic building. 

The Goettmann Printing Company

Built: 1925 Style: Neoclassical Architect: Auler, Jensen & Brown

The masons got their start in Oshkosh as Fox River Lodge F. and A.M. in 1849. Their first meetings were held over a blacksmith's shop on the corner of Ferry and High Streets. Masonry's focus is on self-improvement, charity and bettering their communities.

Over the years, the masons had several buildings throughout Oshkosh, losing them in the historic fires of 1859 and 1875.

In the early 1920s, with membership expanding, they began drawing up plans for an impressive temple building featuring all the modern conveniences of the time. 

The new temple officially opened in May 1926. Designed in the neoclassical style by local architects Auler, Jensen and Brown, and built by C.R. Meyer and Sons, the new building cost more than $250,000, nearly $3.5 million in today’s dollars. 

The temple is, perhaps, the most potent proof of the progress of the city as a city that has been afforded by recent experience. It is serving and will continue to serve as an example and a stimulant for other organizations. It has in its shining beauty and generous proportions contributed impetus for other structures and appeal for a city beautiful. It is a declaration of faith in the city and the community and proof of confidence in their future. Its influence, direct and indirect, must reach down the years and be an effect in shaping the architectural history of Oshkosh.
--Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, January 6, 1926


A state-of-the-art building, it contained several exciting, new conveniences, including an early form of air conditioning called a swamp cooler, as well as one of the area’s first elevators, which still passes regular inspection and is used today. 

Inside, there are dining rooms, kitchens, lounges, and billiard rooms. The main ballroom, with its elevated stage and expansive two-story ceiling, seats more than four hundred people. 

Official meetings and masonic ceremonies are held in two elaborate lodge rooms, complete with balcony seating and ornate decorative features. 

There's also a museum containing masonic artifacts and histories. You can even find a Cold War era civil defense fallout shelter in the basement.

Much of the language and imagery used by modern masons originated in 18th century England and is strongly symbolic. Even the word, temple, means a place of self-improvement. 

As you stand in front of the building, take a moment to look up at its second-story facade. Can you spot some of the ancient symbols of masonic virtues? 

The trowel spreads brotherly love; the cross stands for the Knights Templar; the plumb means staying on the straight, moral path; the square/protractor is to remind masons to square their actions. 

The protractor draws a circle around proper behaviors. The level means everyone a mason meets is on the same social level. The keystone is a symbol of completion. The 24-inch gauge and hammer represent the day: eight hours each for work, service and rest. 

The hourglass means time is fleeting, use it well. The Eye of Providence stands for the all-seeing eye of God. 

Fun fact: The Knights Templar and the Royal Arch Masons merged to create this lodge, hence some of the symbology included in the architecture. 

Masonry has always had a strong social aspect. In the 1950s, the Oshkosh masons had more than 3,000 members and social lives revolved around membership in such groups including the Knights of Columbus and the Odd Fellows. 

Prior to the creation of federal programs like Social Security, these organizations supplied a social safety net for members and their families when they fell on hard times. 

In 2009, Hollywood came to Oshkosh when the building’s exterior was part of a robbery scene in the John Dillinger film Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp. Today, the Masonic Center is also used as an event space.

Oshkosh Masonic Center

Built: 1925 Style: Neoclassical Architect: Auler, Jensen and Brown (Winnebago Co. Human Services)

As Oshkosh continued to grow, business leaders worked to diversify the local economy. In 1908, a group of local businessmen led by George M. Paine, President of the Paine Lumber Company and the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, founded Wisconsin National Life Insurance Company. 

Wisconsin National Life was the second insurance company founded in Wisconsin, and the first legal reserve stock life insurance company in the state. It started with $125,000, $3.4 million in today's dollars, in assets.

George Paine served as the company’s first president. George Nevitt, Paine's grandson, bought the first policy. 

A Portrait of General Charles R. Boardman

Since its founding, prominent community members and businessmen led the company. When George Paine retired in 1916, General Charles R. Boardman succeeded him as president, and his son Robert P. Boardman took the reins in 1946.

By 1991, Wisconsin National Life Insurance Company had more than $3 billion worth of insurance in force and had agents working in 48 states. 

After operating in Oshkosh during World War I, the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, the Great Depression, and World War II, in 1993, the company was sold, and its local offices closed. 

Winnebago County Department of Human Services currently occupies the building. 

Wisconsin National Life had offices in several locations along Main Street before moving to Washington Avenue in 1911, where it remained until plans were drawn up for a new building in 1927 (two years before the stock market crash).

The structure was designed by Auler, Jensen and Brown, and built by Fluor Bros. Construction Co. It cost $265,000, nearly $3.8 million in today's dollars. 

When it opened on March 17, 1927, The Daily Northwestern devoted extensive coverage to the event, noting the structure’s “stateliness and sturdy beauty” which “added to [the] city’s rapidly growing list of attractive and modern business structures."

Built in the neoclassical Greek style, the impressive structure features an elaborate and colorful terra cotta frieze running along the top of the building. The frieze displays griffins, scrolls, and lions’ heads, images found in classical Greek art and architecture and used to symbolize strength, power and leadership.  

If you look up towards the third floor you'll see several owls lining the windows along the front and sides of the building. The owl is associated with the Greek Goddess of wisdom, Athena. Classically, the owl symbolized both wisdom and knowledge.

The ornate Corinthian capitals topping the exterior columns represent the third, and most decorative, of the three classical Greek architectural styles.

If you stand across the street from Roe Park and look slightly to the west along Washington Avenue, you can see all three styles of classical Greek columns: Ionic, featured at Oshkosh Public Library; Doric, at the Masonic Center; and, finally, the Corinthian columns of the Wisconsin National Life Building. Do you have a favorite? 

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The interior is closed to the general public. However, some of the original design work is still present. 

Wisconsin National Life Insurance Building

Built: 1929/1931 Style: Neoclassical Supervising Architect: James A. Wetmore (Oshkosh Office Center)

From a single log cabin to a 110,000-square foot complex, the Oshkosh Post Office has grown with the city and been an “index to the prosperity of the community." Two of the buildings that housed the U.S. Post Office in Oshkosh were located along Washington Avenue - one is still standing today.

On March 12, 1840, Postmaster General Amos Kendall established Oshkosh’s first post office and President Martin Van Buren appointed John P. Gallup as postmaster. Gallup opened the post office in a room at his home - a log cabin located near the first settler monument at the intersection of Bowen Street and Bay Shore Drive. Postmaster Gallup contracted with Chester Ford to carry the mail once a week on horseback from Fond du Lac. As you can imagine, Ford's job was not easy.

The first trip made by Mr. Ford was a light one, and the mail was carried in his coat pocket; consisting of one letter and one newspaper; highly suggestive of the greatest impropriety of robbing the mail. His mail was light, but not so his task, when we consider that it was carried through Indian country, through deep snow in winter and deep morass in summer, but with few stopping places, and those not always first class “Hotels”.
- Biographical and statistical history of the city of Oshkosh, Winnebago Co., Wisconsin: its early history, progress, and present condition (1867)


During the first decade of service, mail delivery occurred weekly or semi-weekly and was a community event. On delivery day, a large crowd would gather at the post office to hear the postmaster read out the names of those who received mail. If someone was absent, the townspeople would track them down to let them know they had mail. 

Mail was often sent collect, especially in new territories such as Oshkosh. Before postage stamps were introduced, residents paid the postmaster directly, and since Oshkosh had no bank, the postmaster was responsible for the money. One early postmaster even placed the currency under his bed each night for safe keeping. 

When mail service began, 135 settlers lived in Winnebago County. By the time free daily mail delivery to individual homes started 42 years later, more than 15,000 people lived here. 

In the first 50 years of mail service, the post office was in the postmaster's home or another leased space. During that period, the post office moved 13 times and was destroyed by fire on three separate occasions, the last time during the Great Fire of 1875. 

By the 1880s, community growth made the need for an official federal post office building clear to Postmaster Col. Henry B. Harshaw and others. 

The first federal post office building, located on the northwest corner of Jefferson Street and Washington Avenue, opened in the spring of 1890. Designed by architect William Waters, the impressive red brick building with Bedford limestone trim also housed the court house and other government offices.   

By the 1920s, the city’s mail delivery needs had outgrown the building at Jefferson and Washington. Congressman Florian Lampert championed a new post office building for Oshkosh, making the first request in the United States House of Representatives in 1919. 

Not until 1926 did plans for a new post office truly gain momentum under Postmaster Ernest P.G. Schlerf, who argued that increased mail volume demanded a new, larger facility. The site was purchased on Sept. 24, 1928 and construction began seven weeks later.

The new post office was one of thousands of government buildings credited to James A. Wetmore. A long-time employee of the Treasury Department, Wetmore began his career as a 22-year-old stenographer and steadily rose through the ranks at Treasury until accepting the position of Acting Supervising Architect in 1915. 

Though not an architect, Wetmore had a deep respect for the profession and kept a strong rapport with the architects and draftsmen of the Treasury Department. He served as Acting Supervising Architect for nearly 20 years, retiring in 1934 and never allowing his position to be classified as permanent.

You can still see his name on the cornerstones of hundreds of federal buildings throughout the country, including this one. 

Built by Magee & Ganley Bros. Co. of St. Paul, Minneapolis, the building officially opened for business on Feb. 24, 1931. The exterior is finished with Bedford limestone and green trim, which is consistent with the neighborhood's style.

The upper floors had offices for Navy recruitment, the Internal Revenue Service and War Department. It also featured a large room used to administer civil service exams - the first and only room serving this purpose in the area. 

The lobby was impressive. The construction supervising engineer thought the lobby’s marble pillars, walls and bronze lock boxes, made it “the most beautiful of any he had supervised." 

Fun fact: The interior contained a system of “loopholes” or “spyholes” which could be used to observe staff members suspected of tampering with the mail. The vault was rigged to release tear gas in case of a break-in.

By the mid-1960s, Oshkosh had again outgrown its post office. In 1966, the Oshkosh post office handled the third highest mail volume in the state and served fifty-two communities in the region. Traffic around the Washington Avenue building was described as having “reached intolerable proportions."  

In 1968, the federal government leased land from the Winnebago County Airport, later renamed Wittman Regional Airport, for a massive modern facility. The 110,000 square-foot facility opened on 20th Avenue in July 1974. 

The building at 219 Washington Ave. served as a branch post office until 1975. Since that time, a variety of businesses and government agencies have used it, including former Congressman William Steiger and Sen. Ron Johnson.

U.S. Post Office & Federal Building

Dedicated in honor of architect William Waters: 1980. Currently undergoing a complete redevelopment.

In 1978, the city reconfigured the intersection at Washington Avenue, State Street and Jefferson Street to improve traffic and create a pedestrian plaza.

In its current condition, you may be wondering why William Waters Plaza is part of your tour, but what you’re seeing now is only the first phase of its extreme makeover. 

To better understand, travel back to June 7, 1980, when the plaza honoring acclaimed Oshkosh architect William Waters was formally dedicated.  

Waters was a well-known architect and charitable man who designed more than 150 buildings during his 50-year career, including Oshkosh Public Library across the street. The plaza honors his character and contributions to society.  

Thanks to the recent efforts of several local organizations and the City of Oshkosh, William Waters Plaza is undergoing a multi-year renovation. 

Over time, the area around you will include new lighting, landscaping, benches, game tables and a beautiful gazebo, which will be a venue for outdoor concerts, exhibitions and other social events. 

Once again, it’s an exciting time for the Washington Avenue corridor. 

Born in Franklin, Delaware County, New York in 1843, Waters studied at the Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York for two years. He spent the next two years employed as an assistant engineer on the Midland Railway. 

Because of the many opportunities following the great fires, he "came west" after the Civil War to seek his fortune. 

Waters met and married Catherine Follett, daughter of Oshkosh's second mayor, and by 1872 they had three children - Libbie, Willie and Katie. 

Tragically, Katie perished in 1873 at 10 months old, and in October 1875, young Catherine died suddenly. 

Waters' first two buildings in Oshkosh were the Oshkosh Normal School, which later became the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and the Brooklyn Firehouse, which still stands today.

Never limiting himself to one type of project, Waters designed hotels, commercial structures, residences, government buildings, and churches throughout Oshkosh and the Fox Valley. 

His versatile style adapted to changing trends, the needs of the project and his clients. Examples of Gothic Revival, Neoclassical, Romanesque, Queen Anne, and Tudor styles can be seen in Waters' designs. 


The highlight of his career came when he was chosen to design the Wisconsin Building for the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago (also called the World's Fair). 

William Waters Plaza

Phoenix

Austin

Tucson inspires a sense of freedom among all who visit. Freedom of thought and expression. Freedom to discover and explore. And the freedom to be yourself.

Explore Historic Washington Avenue in Oshkosh, Wis.

Oshkosh in 1900

Oshkosh in 1900

Oshkosh Public Library

Oshkosh Public Library

Fraternal Reserve Association

Fraternal Reserve Association

The Goettmann Printing Company

The Goettmann Printing Company

Oshkosh Masonic Center

Oshkosh Masonic Center

Wisconsin National Life Insurance Building

Wisconsin National Life Insurance Building

U.S. Post Office & Federal Building

U.S. Post Office & Federal Building

William Waters Plaza

William Waters Plaza

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