Union Train Depot, Ashland Wisconsin

Date added: June 28, 2023 Categories: Wisconsin Train Station

The Ashland depot is a major landmark in the city of Ashland symbolizing the city's turn-of-the-century dream of future greatness. Built in an era when residents felt Ashland would one day compete with major cities like Chicago, the depot became a key terminal for freight and passengers from northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The depot is the work of a regionally prominent architect, Charles Sumner Frost, who specialized in the design of railroad stations.

The Ashland depot is significant as a symbol of the rebirth of the city in 1900. Ashland's initial development was from the lumbering industry and brownstone quarries. It harbored a transient population and until its incorporation in 1887, had a reputation as a wild and lawless town. With the advent of the "White Pine" era, sawmills dotted the shoreline and the railroads extended their lines to gain access to the lucrative freight trade. The Chicago and Northwest Railway completed a line to Ashland in 1885. The railroad lines not only provided markets and passenger service for the community, but became the index by which success was measured.

It was once said, as a mark of the great commercial supremacy of Chicago, that for every day of the year, a train arrived or departed from that city - during a day of 24 hours. To say that Ashland now occupies the advanced position Chicago vacated a few years ago will prove a startling assertion for many - but it is a fact just the same." Ashland Daily Press, Progress Edition, 1893

Yet by 1890 the marketable timber supply largely had been depleted and with the closing of the brownstone quarries, the city entered a stagnant period.

The railroad network that had been established during the lumbering boom was expanded after new iron ore deposits were discovered on the Gogebic Range in the late 1890s. "The certainty of having these increased railway facilities, together with new and important discoveries of iron ore in the Gogebic mining region, gave capitalists confidence in the little city."

Erected in May 1900, during this period of resurgence, the Ashland depot was important to passenger and freight service. The city of Ashland became the major outlet for products from northern Wisconsin and Michigan. After construction of the depot, Chicago and Northwest completed its freight service network with the building of three magnificent ore docks to utilize water routes to the east. The Chicago and Northwest travel brochures, published nationwide, advertised Ashland as a prime resort area just "a few hours" away by rail.

The sportsman will find there a large field for operation...The lover of natural scenery will find here romantic views beyond the power of description...A visit to the region is almost a certain cure for hayfever and kindred disorders. Many hundreds of people afflicted in this way, try this locality and almost always find immediate relief. Summer Holiday, Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, Rand McNally & Co.

The completion of the depot was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm, and said to be "quite an acquisition to Ashland." Ashland residents envisioned the city as someday gaining equal prominence with Chicago and Milwaukee. Proposed plans for subways running through the city evidenced the dream of future greatness. Although boosterism ran high, Ashland reached its peak in 1910 and subsequently population declined.

The depot was in use until 1968, providing passenger and freight service. In the 1950's the area surrounding the depot was zoned for industrial use. Since that time, industry has been moving out and abandoning the central city. The encroachment of multiple-family dwellings into the area has revitalized the deteriorating neighborhood. Through the support of the Ashland Community Development Commission, Senior Citizen housing projects have been built directly north and northwest of the depot. This influx of residential units initiated plans to adapt the depot for use as a senior citizen community center, with space for small shops, a pharmacy, and doctors offices.

Architect Charles Sumner Frost

Charles Sumner Frost was born in Main in 1856; he studied at M.I.T. and then worked for a number of Boston firms, notably Peabody and Stearns. Frost moved to Chicago and entered into a partnership with Henry Ives Cobb from 1882 to 1889, mainly designing residences and private clubs in the Midwest. The partnership was dissolved and Frost practiced alone until 1898. In that year he formed a firm with Alfred A. Granger, and became the senior partner.

Frost married Mary Hughitt, the daughter of Marvin Hughitt, president of two midwestern railroads. Frost's father-in-law was responsible for consolidating small railroads that had begun to flounder at the turn of the century. Hughitt's acquisition of small lines in the Midwest propelled the Chicago and Northwest Railway Company into the forefront of the region's transportation network. Rail transportation was at its zenith and to maintain a substantial share of this market, Chicago and Northwest proceeded to construct stations on its new lines. Frost's marriage no doubt contributed to his receipt of many commissions for railroad depots and offices, and to his special studies of railroad design. Among the many railroad designs executed by Frost and his partners were the Chicago and Northwest Company offices, the La Salle St. Station and the Northwestern Terminal in Chicago, Union Stations in Omaha and St. Paul, and the North-Western Depot of Milwaukee.

Frost's expertise was demonstrated in his handling of the design of more modest stations. Smaller stations in Wisconsin designed by Frost that are still in existence include depots at Lake Geneva, Superior, Eau Claire, and South Milwaukee. In regard to small depot design Frost wrote:

The design for small stations is very similar; each requires two waiting rooms, one ticket office, and a baggage room, but so simple a problem, if considered rightly, has many points important both to the company and the traveling public...The waiting room should always command a view of the trains...The approaches must be ample and the exits to the street so arranged that large bodies of people may pass from trains without passing through waiting rooms.... Architecturally, the building should express its purpose and when possible, also give some hint to the character of the town or city which it serves. Above all things, as it is intended for a waiting place, the shelter feature must be strongly developed. The walls and piers should be massive, even out of proportion to the load they carry, in order not to be damaged by the vibration and jar caused by passing trains. The roof, is after all, the chief feature, and on its handling and material depend much of the failure or success of the design. The carriage porch is practical only at points of small travel; at others, the platforms, with long shelter projecting a few feet over the road may serve a better purpose.

All of Frost's depots exhibit his theory of design and the philosophy of the Late Victorian picturesque design: as is usual in depot design the ticket office is centrally located and marked on the exterior by a tower. or bay; the waiting room and baggage area are separated by a structural division; all feature long dominating roofs over the main section and platforms sheltered by long roofs that extend the horizontal line of the building. In the case of Ashland, the red brick trimmed with stone, appropriately states the vision residents had of Ashland one day becoming a leading city in the United States. The permanence implied in the depot's construction symbolized the desire of the city to enunciate it's new found prosperity.

Building Description

The Ashland depot is built of red brick with stone belt courses highlighting the sills, gables, foundation and frieze. The main section is sheltered by a slate-hipped roof with decorative metal flashing on the ridge and parapet gabled dormers facing northwest and southeast. Stone quoins accent the fenestration (and doors) of the building. A group of three segmentally arched windows punctuate the main section's facade.

A shed roof extends from the gabled dormer on the main facade and marks the entrance and ticket office. Beneath the parapet gabled dormer on the southeast facade is a one-story bay that overlooks oncoming trains. A projecting gabled wing with two symmetrically-placed segmentally arched windows served as the general waiting room.

A low-hipped roof that connects to the main section on the southeast corner, extends the horizontally, continuous roof line over the passenger concourse. The roof expanse, supported by large bracketed beams unites the main passenger service area with adjacent freight facilities.

At present, the building's condition can be described as fair. Portions of the roof are in need of repair as are sections of the facade, otherwise the building's exterior is identical to its appearance when it was constructed in 1900.