Institution

The Freemasons have been with Antigo since its inception. Antigo Lodge No.231 was chartered on September 15, 1885, originally meeting in the room above a local storefront. By 1902, they organized to build a three-story brick building which is today Neve’s furniture store. The second floor was used as a dining hall and parlor and the third floor was for official lodge business, while the ground floor was rented out to various enterprises.One of the first of these renters was the Antigo/City Gas Company office, and others would eventually include a grocery business run by Al Connor as well as People’s Bank. In 1947, Charles Soman opened a furniture store here and soon expanded to the entire first floor; in 1964 the entire building was sold to Soman Home Furnishings Co.Soman’s furniture store also doubled as a funeral home, which was not unusual for the period, as evidenced by the fact that the building across the street also housed a different combination “furniture-funeral” business (McCandless &amp; Zobel Furniture); the skills that came in handy crafting tables and chairs were equally useful in making caskets.In 1969, the tall front windows of the building were replaced with a gray stucco facade.In 1978, Soman’s furniture store was bought out by two of its employees, James Horton and Gerald Rhia, renaming the business to H&amp;R Furniture &amp; Carpentry. The business finally came under its current ownership in 2002, when it was bought out by the Neve family.

The storefront decorated for Christmas in 1990.

Photo of the building under construction in 1902.

Wisconsin Valley Electric Company office, 1923.

Originally constructed as a Masonic lodge in 1902, what is today Neve’s Floors to Go Furniture and Mattress Gallery has been a colorful and storied part of Fifth Avenue for most of Antigo’s history. Although the Freemasons of Antigo Lodge No.231 owned the building until 1963, the ground floor was utilized by many different businesses, from a funeral home, to a bank, to a furniture store. Masonic symbols can still be seen on the peak of the structure.

Neve's Floors To Go Furniture and Mattress Gallery

Take a stroll through over 130 years of history in Antigo's downtown commercial district, featuring several unique and interesting local landmarks that have been selected for their unusual appearances, fascinating stories, or cultural-economic significance.

<h2>The Antigo Public Library and Antigo Library System: History</h2>Attempts to establish some form of library system in Antigo, Wisconsin began as early as 1879; this attempt took the form of a small rental library run by a local shopkeeper. As the community grew in size, local interest in establishing an official library grew in tandem. Although the city met this demand and formally established a library system in 1900, this organization remained without a dedicated home for years and had to provide its services from local private properties and later the city hall. To remedy this situation, the city applied for a Carnegie grant of nearly $13,000 to construct a committed library building, and in 1903, the city’s application was accepted. Designed in the Georgian Revival style by architect Allan Conover, construction of the library began in 1904 at 404 Superior Street in Antigo, Wisconsin. Construction was complete by 1905, and in the same year, the Antigo library system began to provide its services to the people of Antigo from the brand-new Antigo Public Library.During its time in the Antigo Public Library building, the Antigo library system was integral to the proliferation of library services throughout Langlade and other nearby counties. In 1961, the Antigo Public Library served as the headquarters for a “bookmobile” initiative that provided limited mobile library service to the Langlade, Oneida, Florence, Lincoln, Forest, and Vilas counties. Plans were discussed in 1962 to make the Antigo library system the head of a more formal cross-county library system, and later in the same year the Oneida County Board passed a resolution to enter into a joint agreement with the nearby Langlade, Florence, Forest, and Vilas counties to have the Antigo library system provide library services to the aforementioned counties for 1963. In 1997, the Antigo library system transferred from the Antigo Public Library into a new building located at 617 Clermont Street, Antigo, Wisconsin.<h2>The Langlade County Historical Society: History</h2>The Antigo Public Library also served as the home for the organization that would eventually take over the property in its entirety: the Langlade County Historical Society. The proceedings to create a historical society for Langlade County were well under way by 1921, but it was in 1929 that the Langlade County Historical Society was officially founded. By 1930, the LCHS was accepting donations of Langlade County-related historical artifacts, and the organization was actively involved in the planning and hosting of community events including picnics, public talks, and more. The LCHS was also active in the historical society community, sending representatives to participate in state historical conferences attended by various local historical societies throughout the state of Wisconsin.In 1933, the Langlade County Historical Society moved its museum and meeting location into a room on the second floor of the Antigo Public Library, beginning the long association of the LCHS with the Antigo Public Library building and the accompanying Deleglise Cabin. When the Antigo Public Library moved into its new facility in 1997, the LCSH took over the building and repurposed the library into its current form: an expanded headquarters and museum for the Langlade County Historical Society that continues and expands upon the Society’s past activities.<h2>The Deleglise Cabin</h2>Aside from the Antigo Public Library building, the property at 404 Superior Street also includes another historic building: the Deleglise Cabin. Built in the late 1800s, this log cabin was the first home constructed in Antigo and was also the home of the city founder, Francis Deleglise. It is worth noting that the Cabin was not originally a part of the property where it now resides; in 1914, the Cabin was moved from its original location to its current place in light of local movements to save the Cabin from being torn down for a new building.As a local historic building, the Deleglise Cabin helped attract additional visitors to the library and the Langlade County Historical Society; as early as 1959, the library hosted a museum in the Cabin sponsored by the LCHS. Still under the operation and supervision of the LCHS, the Delesglise Cabin remains an open attraction for the public to appreciate.

The Langlade County Historical Museum (historically known as the Antigo Public Library and Deleglise Cabin) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and serves as a reminder of the proud history underpinning Antigo, Wisconsin. The site encompasses two historic buildings: the Antigo Public Library and the Deleglise Cabin. Built in 1904 and remaining in service until 1997, the Antigo Public Library was integral in providing library services to Langlade and the surrounding counties. In 1997, the Antigo library system moved to a new building, and the entirety of the Antigo Public Library became the home of the Langlade County Historical Society.The Deleglise Cabin was built in 1878 by the founder of Antigo, Wisconsin and is widely recognized as the first home built in the city. In 1914, the cabin was relocated to 404 Superior Street.

Langlade County Historical Museum

Antigo’s first school was a log cabin, built in 1879, shortly after the Deleglise family, Antigo’s founding family, moved here. Formal training of teachers did not begin until decades later when the Langlade County Teachers College was formed in 1905. At that time a prospective elementary school teacher was required to have an eighth-grade education, followed by one year of training at the teachers’ college. In the fall of 1906, 35 students enrolled in a new program taught on the second floor of the new Carnegie Library (now the museum). More stringent requirements were soon instituted; a teachers’ college enrollee needed a high school diploma and two years of classes at the teachers’ college. By 1922 the graduating class of elementary school teachers had reached 281and it became obvious that the facility was too small. A separate building was planned. (1,2)The architectural firm of Parkinson &amp; Dockendorf of La Crosse had been specializing in educational buildings state-wide since 1902. They constantly revised building plans as education methods evolved, while carefully considering costs to taxpayers. They designed high schools, elementary schools, middle schools, vocational schools, and teacher training schools ("Normal Schools"). Their design for the two-story building for the flat-iron lot across from the Carnegie Library was completed, at a cost of $53,440, in time for classes to begin on August 26,1926. The building is constructed of Bedford stone and contained rooms and equipment for domestic science, manual training, a library, assembly room, gymnasium and spectators’ gallery, a model school and classrooms. (2) In 1937 teacher training was expanded to a two-year course. (3)In the 1960s many rural elementary schools consolidated and, at the same time, teacher training was revised and a four-year college degree became required. Active teachers were grandfathered in but were required to take make-up classes during summers at the Normal School. The Normal School closed in 1971.The building then became a community center and housed the Langlade County Department on Aging. Today it is the Boys and Girls Club of the Northwoods.

For almost fifty years, the men and women who taught in Langlade County’s elementary schools were trained in this building, designed by an architectural firm that specialized in designing schools of all levels. As methods for training teachers were revised, building designs changed. This building, in its design, was ideally suited for its time and purpose and eventually for other uses by other organizations. The building and its current users, the Boys and Girls Club of the Northwoods, are still an important center of community activity.

Langlade County Teachers College (Boys and Girls Club)

First located at the corner of 10th Avenue and Door Street, Antigo Co-Op Credit Union only had $1500 in assets in 1952, and its first loan in 1953 was for just $400 (approximately $4500 in 2022 dollars). By 1961, the credit union’s assets had surpassed $1,000,000; by 1976, a year after the current headquarters was constructed, Antigo Co-Op had 10,000 members, a 40,000% increase from 26 members in 1954. As it grew, the credit union’s charter was gradually amended to include more communities outside of Langlade County and mergers were negotiated with other credit unions in the region. For this reason, Antigo Co-Op Credit Union rebranded as CoVantage Credit Union in 2001.Membership and assets continued growing steadily over the decades, surpassing $1 billion in assets in 2012, and reaching 100,000 members soon after in 2017. In 2019, CoVantage president Charlie Zanayed cited the cooperative roots of the business and its ties to the community as the key to its continued success.The headquarters building itself has undergone significant expansion over the years, adding a third story in 2019 and now hosting approximately half of CoVantage’s roughly 500 employees in a space of 72,000 square feet.

Founded in 1952 as Antigo Co-Op Credit Union and rebranded in 2001, CoVantage Credit Union is one of Antigo’s most notable businesses, with locations throughout northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. Its current headquarters, built in 1975, is a prominent landmark in downtown Antigo that has seen significant remodeling and expansion over the decades. The credit union maintains close ties with the community in Antigo through its long history in the town and regular charitable efforts.

CoVantage Credit Union Headquarters

The postal service in early Langlade County was an informal institution. Mail would be delivered via horse or stagecoach from Wausau by private carriers, until a government contract organized the process in 1880. Mail would be delivered to the home or business of an appointed postmaster, who would then distribute it to recipients whenever they happened to visit. Thus, the homes and businesses of these postmasters served as the de facto post offices for the town. The first postmaster, appointed in 1879, was Niels Anderson, who was also Antigo’s first merchant and who delivered mail from his log cabin storefront.The post office moved around as the office of postmaster changed hands, until in 1915 the federal government established an official, centralized post office for the city of Antigo. The land the building would sit on was purchased from the Antigo Canning Company in 1911 for $8,250 (inflation-adjusted, about $250,000 in 2022) and the building itself was constructed for a cost of $60,000 (about $1.8 million in 2022).The building itself represents a type of ornate federal architecture that died out during the Great Depression. Sporting marble floors and a vaulted ceiling, the Antigo Post Office has an individual character that is absent from many government structures built after it, when standardized designs and limited decoration became the norm.The post office building has remained largely faithful to its original construction, with most of its ornamentation intact. Over the years, the interior has been remodeled and a wheelchair ramp has been added to the entrance. It remains a prominent landmark in downtown Antigo.

The Antigo Post Office is over a century old and one of the many distinctive buildings found throughout Antigo’s downtown district. It represents a new era in Antigo’s development, as well as a peek into a bygone era of ornamental federal architecture. The structure has been in continuous use as Antigo’s official post office since its construction and the exterior remains mostly identical to its original design.

Antigo Post Office

The first known Episcopal services in Antigo were held in 1883, likely at the present site of St. Hyacinth’s and St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which at the time was owned by a Methodist congregation. Episcopal services would go on to migrate from building to building, notably briefly settling in an abandoned saloon for time, which had been closed down due to the teetotaling attitudes of the town’s founders. In 1886, Bishop John Henry Hobart Brown of the Diocese of Fond du Lac organized the local Episcopalians into St. Joseph’s Mission, at which point construction on a church of their own began. This small wooden church was originally located at the corner of Milton St. and 6th Ave., until it was moved to the site of the present church in 1893. This original building would become a meeting hall and gymnasium after the construction of the new church, and was eventually sold in 1948 and moved from the property.The current stone church was constructed in 1908, and after much deliberation renamed from St. Joseph’s to St. Ambrose. The church fell into disrepair during the throes of the Great Depression, and closed from 1941-42 for maintenance. Various repairs and upgrades have occurred since, with the Episcopal mission still calling the building home today. The building remains a unique and treasured historic building for the entire community.

St. Ambrose Episcopal Church is a distinctive stone building located in Antigo’s downtown district. Originally without a formal congregation, the first Episcopalian mission in Antigo was organized by the Diocese of Fond du Lac in 1886, under the name of St. Joseph’s, and the current church building was constructed 1908 at a cost of about $10,000 (approximately $300,000 in 2022 dollars), at which point the mission was renamed to St. Ambrose. It is one of the oldest standing church buildings in Antigo, and stands out for its stone architecture, which is well-maintained and somewhat unusual for this region.

St. Ambrose Episcopal Church

Originally, the railroads almost bypassed Antigo entirely. In 1881, the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway (MLS&amp;W) planned to build a route from Eland (approximately 20 miles south of modern Antigo) to Ashland (approx. 130 miles northeast) which would have missed Antigo entirely, passing 2 miles to the west instead of reaching the town. The town’s founder, Francis A. Deleglise, tried to convince the MLS&amp;W to change its route to pass through Antigo, donating 50 acres of his own property for railroad use to convince the company. This, combined with ample flat land in Antigo on which to construct a railyard, led to the MLS&amp;W changing course. Langlade County’s first railroad was completed that year, a route stretching 23 miles from Aniwa to Summit Lake, with another 16-mile long branch to Rhinelander. The first train arrived in Antigo on August 15th, 1881, where the crew was greeted with sandwiches and lemonade. Deleglise, as it happens, was a firm teetotaler. (1)From 1883 to 1886, extensive railroad infrastructure was built in what is now downtown Antigo, in the area between modern First and Seventh Avenues. A passenger depot, freight house, icehouse, pump house, engine house, and roundhouse were all built in these few short years immediately following the railroad’s arrival in Antigo. In 1892, the Chicago and North Western Railway Company (C&amp;NW) purchased the MLS&amp;W, and by 1893 had thoroughly consolidated the new acquisition into its own network. Soon after, a new brick roundhouse was built in Antigo in 1893 (the previous one having been constructed out of wood), signaling the new company’s keen interest in the city. This interest became even clearer in 1904, when the C&amp;NW invested in extensive upgrades to Antigo’s railroad infrastructure. With the completion of these upgrades, Antigo possessed upwards of 30 engine stalls, as well as extensive company offices and warehouses spanning 10 city blocks (2). Finally, in 1907 Antigo had a new depot built (3) and was made the headquarters of the C&amp;NW’s Ashland Division, a title formerly held by Kaukauna. This put Antigo at the center of a sprawling rail network spanning from Kaukauna (via Appleton) in the south, through Antigo to Ashland by way of Watersmeet and Rhinelander in the north, and from Eland to Marshfield in the west. As part of this, the old depot was relocated and another new building constructed in its place. The early 1900s, specifically the period around the First World War, was the peak of logging and lumber traffic in northern Wisconsin. By 1907, the timber resources directly around Antigo had become depleted by stark clearcutting, leading lumber providers to branch out for new forests to vanish. Downsizing began as early as 1928. The Second World War would delay the inevitable. The city saw truly mindboggling amounts of freight move through it in the 1940s and 1950s. In this period, roughly 2000 freight cars a year, filled just with potatoes, would leave Antigo every year, to say nothing of other goods. (3) Another example, continuing longer, was the Vulcan Corporation. Vulcan was founded in 1909 in Ohio and relocated to Antigo in 1925 because of the abundance of maple trees and excellent rail connections. Vulcan manufactured a number of wood products and eventually settled on making bowling pins. In 1964 they contracted to export bowling pins to Japan to satisfy the growing interest in all things American in post-World War II Japan. In 1972, a peak year, Vulcan produced 500 to 600 sets of pins daily and over 100,000 sets of pins were shipped out of the Antigo depot to Minneapolis from where they were flown to Japan. (4)Passenger service was also a vital part of the Antigo depot. (5) One routine, begun in 1905 and continuing for about 50 years, was the arrival of northbound and southbound trains at noon. They stopped for 55 minutes while crew members worked on the trains and passengers went for lunch. Antigo considered itself “The Gateway to the Northwoods”. Tourists traveling north changed trains in Antigo. One tourist promotion was the C&amp;NW “Fishermen’s Excursion Specials”. Fishermen would leave Chicago in the evening for Antigo then change trains and proceed to either Lake Gogebic in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (where the C&amp;NW owned a resort) or to Woodruff and the Cisco Chain of Lakes in northern Wisconsin. After their fishing outings, travelers returned to Chicago in trains which had special refrigerated cars for trophy fish. Refrigeration likely used ice cut out of the lake in Antigo and stored in the Antigo station’s ice house. In early spring and late fall (May 1st to Memorial Day and Labor Day to Oct. 1st) Fishermen’s Specials ran only on weekends but from Memorial to Labor Day they ran daily except for Mondays. (5)With diesel replacing steam engines beginning in the 1950s and the general decline of rail service, Antigo lost its prominence as a rail hub. (6) All the buildings associated with the railroad gradually disappeared, except for the depot. By 1991, almost a decade had passed since any train had passed through the depot. The city voted to issue $3 million in bonds to finance a $1.75 million development of the depot building and the construction of additional commercial space and housing on the depot grounds. The plan was developed by the Madison, Wisconsin Developer Randy Alexander, which specializes in repurposing historic buildings. The first floor was to be devoted to commercial space and the second floor to six apartments. Two eight-unit apartment buildings would be built on the depot grounds in a style compatible with that of the depot. (7) Today the depot building, on the National Register of Historic Places, is a fine example of how an historic building may be repurposed and serve as a reminder of an important part of the city’s history. (7,8,9)

The Depot Apartments building, now serving as affordable housing, was originally built as a train depot in 1907 and renovated for its current usage in 1992. It is one of the oldest extant structures in Antigo still in use, and one of the few remaining symbols of Antigo’s rich origins and history as a railroad town. Serving as an important node in the Chicago and North Western Railway’s network, in the 1940s upwards of 70% of Antigo’s families had someone employed by the railroad. The company served as the anchor for the city’s historical economic and infrastructural development.

Depot Apartments

The original hotel, built at this site in 1885 just when Antigo was incorporated as a city, was known as the Lake Shore House, named for the Milwaukee, Lake Shore &amp; Western Railroad (MLS&amp;W), which was the first railway company to run through Antigo. The hotel had 18 rooms and two stories.The wooden-frame building was remodeled in 1903, and in 1907 a brick veneer was added and a third story was constructed, adding 40 additional rooms, bringing the total number of rooms to 60. Significant upgrades of the interior took place in 1914, with the addition of a writing room, stained glass windows, a remodeled bar, as well as Turkish baths just off the lobby and a bowling alley in the basement. At this time, Antigo’s streets were unpaved; as such, a tunnel was built beneath Fifth Avenue that allowed women to walk from the Hoffman House to the opera house across the street without getting their dresses muddy.After the Chicago &amp; Northwestern Railroad acquired the MLS&amp;W in 1893, the Lake Shore Hotel changed its name to the Hoffman House, after Joseph Hoffman, the hotel’s builder and proprietor. Hoffman was one of Antigo’s early settlers, who was born in Germany in 1859 and immigrated to Appleton at the age of 9 with his parents. He worked on log drives on the Wolf River, and later helped lay the tracks for the MLS&amp;W when it expanded into Antigo. In 1883, he married and two years later settled down in Antigo, which was then, in his words, “a hole in the woods”. In addition to managing his hotel, he helped pull tree stumps from Fifth Avenue while it was being cleared for traffic.Joseph’s son, Frank, worked with his father from 1903 onward and took over the Hoffman House when Joseph retired in 1914. The Hoffman family would continue owning and managing the hotel until 1971, when it was sold to Jerome Kaske. After this, the building was nearly demolished before being sold to Florence Nes in 1981, who set about the task of restoring the business’s historic decorum. It was then acquired by Tom Koss, who kept the hotel portion open but shuttered the bar and lounge.The property was then acquired by Rodney and Tina Hix in 2021, who reopened the cocktail lounge and restaurant, and also converted part of the upper floors into apartments.

The Hoffman House is one of Antigo’s oldest and most well-known bars and social venues, originally opened in 1885 by one of the town’s early pioneers. Owned by the Hoffman family from 1885 to 1971, both they and later owners took pains to preserve the ornate early 20th century decorum of the building, with the cabinetry, floor tiling, ceiling, and stained glass windows all remaining authentic to their 1910s origins. Today, it still operates as a popular downtown bar, and also rents rooms on the upper floors.

The Hoffman House

Antigo was incorporated as a city in 1885 (1), with a population of just under 2,000 (2). Just 4 years later it had its first theater, the Bijou Opera House. But that theater was short lived, destroyed by fire 1895. (3) It was not long before planning for a new theater began. By 1903 the new Opera House opened. (4) It was located at the western edge of a thriving downtown, built at a time of rapid growth in Antigo. A new city hall, erected in 1900, a courthouse and Carnegie Library (now a museum) both built in 1905, and expansion of the railroad facilities all signaled the importance of a growing city. The luxurious Lakeshore Hotel (later renamed the Hoffman House and originally named for the Milwaukee &amp; Lakeshore Railroad which initially served the city) was directly across the street and connected to the Opera House by an underground tunnel.The three-story brick structure is in a Classical Revival style, characterized by a symmetrical façade and characterized by semi-circular arched openings. The theater seated a total of 1,100, the balcony accommodating 350. This amounted to ~15-20% of Antigo’s population. The stage had space for fifty performers and two railroad cars of scenery. (5)The Opera House hosted a wide variety of entertainments, including vaudeville shows, concerts, and more serious dramas. One of the more popular plays was a dramatization of the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which was produced by several different companies a number of times over the years. Motion pictures, silent movies and, later “talkies” were also very popular, including blockbusters such as Birth of a Nation and The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as documentation of events such as the Dempsey-Tunney boxing match in 1927. The silent movies were not silent. An orchestra played a musical sound track accompaniment. (3)Social gatherings also took place. Dances in the Opera House (the Antigo High School Junior Prom and other events) took place by clearing the chairs on the main floor and having the musicians performing on the stage. From time to time, the Opera House served as a venue for industrial exhibits. Important figures spoke at the Opera House, including Robert LaFollette and Booker T Washington. (5) One of the more interesting talks took place in August, 1920. On August 20th, 1919, the 19th Amendment to the constitution had passed, earning women the right to vote. Shortly afterwards, on August 26th, residents of Antigo were scheduled to hear the first political speech in Antigo by a woman and one of the first in the state. Rose Moriarty of Ohio spoke at the Opera House on behalf of the Republican Party. The local newspaper reported; “Although Miss Moriarty comes here at the insistence of the ladies, the men are welcome to attend this speech. And they might as well get used to it, for, from now on, the political speaker must address his remarks to the ladies as well as the men.” (6)When the U.S. entered World War I, in April, 1917, Antigo and rural Langlade County recruits formed a National Guard unit. The city searched for a training site and selected the Opera House as a potential location. Lacking funds, they approached John Hanousek, a wealthy businessman, for a loan. He surprised them by agreeing to purchase the building and pay for its remodeling required for repurposing. (7) The soldiers would eventually form the 107th Trench Mortar Battery Company and fought in France. In May, 1919 the 107th Trench Mortar Battery Company returned home to a grand reception and parade to the Armory (Opera House) where John Hanousek catered and, acting as head chef, hosted a dinner for soldiers, family, and well-wishers. About 800 meals were served from early afternoon to evening. Soon afterwards the building reverted to its original function as a theater and gathering place, and became known as the Armory Theater. (8)In 1929 the local Eagles Club purchased the building and used it as a public hall. In 1951 it again became a National Guard armory until 1977 when the National Guard moved to a new facility. The Opera House lay vacant until 1983 when it was purchased by local businessmen and converted into apartments. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. (5)

The importance of a communal gathering places where individuals may interact with one another and share common experiences is vital to society. This so-called “third space”, in addition to home (first space) and work (second space), may take many forms such as church, a sports venue, museum, club or restaurant, or theater. In the first quarter of the 20th century that space in Antigo was the Opera House. It was a gathering place for live theater, cinema, social gatherings and lectures. The Opera House, one of Antigo’s more imposing buildings, stood at the western end of a thriving downtown, just blocks away from the railroad depot, a focal point of activity, and directly across from one of Antigo’s more luxurious hotels, the Lakeshore Hotel (later renamed the Hoffman House). From its opening in 1903 until the late 1920s the Opera House was the focal point of civic life in Antigo.

Opera House Apartments

The property the structure is built on was platted in 1880 by the town’s founders, Francis and Mary Deleglise, and sold by Mary Deleglise for $15 (approx. $435 in 2022 dollars) to Joseph Somann that same year. In 1888, Somann sold the property to early settler J.C. Lewis and his wife, who built the northern half of the structure that year and opened a hardware store there in 1889.In 1899, the property was sold to J.L. Meade and Co., who opened a pharmacy called City Drug Store. The drug store became a fixture of the community and remained open throughout the decades despite changing owners and pharmacists many times. In 1940, the drug store was acquired by George A. Vosmek, who changed the business’s name to Vosmek Drug Store and operated it for almost 40 years.Throughout the 20th century, the northern part of the property, built in 1902, was also the home of numerous other tenants, including Harry Kelly Insurance Agency, the Antigo Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Virgil Landretti’s practice, no less than three barber shops, and a second-floor apartment.Perhaps most notably and unusually, from 1883 to 1946, various parts of the building were occupied by Antigo Lodge No. 310 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The Odd Fellows, a fraternal order in the tradition of the Freemasons, utilized the second and third floors of the building as a meeting place and lounge for a time. The Odd Fellows’ legacy can still be seen on the structure’s facade, which features significant iconography related to the order, including eyes, shining suns, and interlocking chains.In 1998, the drug store relocated to the former site of Hunter’s Supermarket on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Field Street, rebranding as Lakeside Pharmacy and Grocery, which remains a cornerstone of the community to this day.The former Vosmek Drug Store building has since gone in and out of use, and as of 2022 is empty.

Platted in 1880 by the founders of the town, the site of the old Vosmek Drug Store has a storied history that stretches back to Antigo’s beginnings. The northern part of the building, constructed in 1888, and was initially home to a hardware store, and over time would host tenants ranging from barber shops, to pharmacies, to a Masonic fellowship. Most notably, the property was the site of Vosmek’s Drug Store, a pillar of downtown Antigo for much of the latter half of the 1900s.

Vosmek Drug Store

Antigo’s very first bank, Langlade County Bank, was founded in 1881 shortly after the town’s own founding, by pioneer L.D. Moses, on the corner of Fifth and Superior where Chase Bank now stands, and remained largely the same until it was reorganized as a national bank (that is, regulated by the Department of the Treasury under the National Banking Act) in 1901, when it was re-branded to Langlade National Bank. Initially a more modest, brick structure, the Langlade National Bank was remodeled in the early 1920s into the current grand, imposing structure.In March 1933, in the throes of the Great Depression, all banks in the United States were temporarily closed by executive order as the national financial industry scrambled to reorganize and sustain itself. Many banks did not survive this process, and, in 1934, Langlade National Bank began leasing its space to the Fidelity Savings Bank.Originally founded in 1909 and located on the corner of Fifth and Clermont (the location of BMO Bank in 2022), Fidelity Savings Bank would go on to be Antigo’s only financial institution between 1934 and 1938. Now operating out of the structure on Fifth and Superior, the bank continued to grow over the decades. In 1958, a drive-thru was added to the west side of the building, featuring a turntable which allowed cars to drive up to the teller’s window and then be automatically turned back out onto the street in the tight space; this facility was eventually demolished in 1974 when a new drive-thru was built kitty-corner from the main building on the other side of Superior Street. An electronic sign displaying the time, date, and temperature was added to the exterior in 1961, and was an iconic part of downtown until it was removed during the widening of Superior Street in the 1990s. In 1963, the interior was renovated.In the late 20th century, Fidelity Savings Bank was acquired by Marine Corporation, one of the largest banking companies in Wisconsin, and re-branded as Fidelity Marine Bank. Then, in 1987, Marine Corporation merged with Bank One Corporation, causing the bank at Fifth and Superior to re-brand once again. Finally, in 2005, Bank One merged with JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co, in 2004, the current owners of the bank.

A monumental structure highly visible along the highway, the current Chase Bank building has been an Antigo landmark for a hundred years. Although the current structure was built in 1923, the property has always been used for a bank, changing hands and re-branding many times throughout the town’s history. Originally, it was home to Langlade National Bank, which was Antigo’s primary banking institution until the Great Depression. The exterior of the structure has remained largely unchanged since the 1920s.

Historic Downtown Antigo Walking Tour

Neve's Floors To Go Furniture and Mattress Gallery

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources