Property Record
305 W 3RD ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Weinbrenner Shoe Factory |
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| Other Name: | WEINBRENNER SHOE FACTORY |
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| Reference Number: | 110566 |
| Location (Address): | 305 W 3RD ST |
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| County: | Wood |
| City: | Marshfield |
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| Year Built: | 1935 |
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| Additions: | 1950 |
| Survey Date: | 2005 |
| Historic Use: | industrial building |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | Krasin, Gus A. |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Weinbrenner Shoe Factory |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 8/27/2008 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/18/2008 |
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| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. The Great Depression caused many local businesses to crumble, so Marshfield’s business leaders formed the Marshfield Industrial Foundation to lure new industries and jobs to their town. The foundation called for public funding to build private industrial facilities, reasoning that greater employment would serve the public good. The Albert H. Weinbrenner Company, a Milwaukee-based shoe manufacturer, responded by opening a factory in Marshfield. Funding for construction came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), one of the earliest agencies of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and the city leased the building to the manufacturer at a nominal cost. Like its better-known successor, the Works Progress Administration, FERA sought to relieve massive unemployment by putting people to work building public improvements. In Marshfield, as the Weinbrenner Company began training its new local employees at a nearby school, FERA-paid workers began building the new shoe factory. The facility opened in November 1935 with two hundred Marshfield residents on its payroll. Over the next two years, Weinbrenner hired even more local workers, and it also opened two more city-sponsored branch factories in Merrill and Antigo. Weinbrenner’s Marshfield facility occupies an entire city block. When first built, it surrounded an interior courtyard, but after World War II, as demand and output grew, the factory expanded to fill in the open area. Most of the sprawling, flat-roofed building is a utilitarian one-story structure. But the three-story wing extending along South Walnut Avenue is an imposing brick-and-glass expression of 1930s Art Deco industrial architecture. Brick pilasters crowned by ziggurat capitals thrust upward, supporting stepped parapets at the building’s corners. Huge multipaned windows between the pilasters flood the factory floor with natural light. Each window’s middle section pivots outward to provide ventilation. Built with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration/Wisconsin Emergency Relief Administration. THIS HIGHLY INTACT ART DECO STYLE-INFLUENCED FACTORY WAS DESIGNED BY MARSHFIELD ARCHITECT GUS A. KRASIN AND IT IS STILL USED AS A FACTORY BY THE WEINBRENNER CO. IN 2005. |
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| Bibliographic References: | SANBORN-PERRIS MAPS OF MARSHFIELD: 1884, 1887, 891, 1898, 1904, 1912, 1925, 1925 (UPDATED TO 1941), 1925 (UPDATED TO 1960). SCHNITZLER, DONALD H. (ED.) THE MARSHFIELD STORY. VOL. 1., AMHERST, WI, 1997, P. 58, ; VOL. 2, EAGLE RIVER, WI, 2000, P. 482. MARSHFIELD NEWS-HERALD: 7/8/1935; 5/14/1935; 9/21/1935. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |