513 Vernal Avenue, Milton, WI 53563

Summary

Courier Building
513 Vernal Avenue, Milton, Rock County, WI
Date of Construction: 1887

For almost 110 years, this small commercial building has been the center of local news for the communities of Milton and Milton Junction. In 1907, the editors of one of the local newspapers, The Weekly Telephone, moved their publishing operations into this building, the old Jones Block, a former paint store that had been constructed in 1887. The Weekly Telephone eventually became the Milton Courier, the most successful newspaper in Milton.

Newspaper publishing in Milton and other small towns in Wisconsin during the nineteenth century was a volatile commercial enterprise, with papers coming and going with regularity. In both Milton and Milton Junction, several newspapers operated for a time. By 1900, two papers had emerged as most successful, the Milton Journal published in old Milton and the Weekly Telephone, published in Milton Junction.

Conversely, commercial success was difficult for both papers because the communities, although separate, were so close geographically. The stronger of the two, the Weekly Telephone, finally acquired the Journal in 1912, creating one commercially successful newspaper for the twentieth century, the Journal-Telephone. The name was changed in 1946 into the shorter and catchier Milton Courier, and it has remained in publication to present day.

Modern technology and economic conditions have meant that the actual printing of the Milton Courier is performed off site, but the writing and editing of local news has been done and is still being done in this building.

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