| Additional Information: | Well preserved brick one story warehouse with elaborate brick work along cornice, with four bay loading dock and canopy.
2017:
This one-story, warehouse building is constructed of brick-faced tile and rises from a concrete foundation. A metal canopy shelters the four-bay loading dock; each opening of which retains an original, wood-and-glass (albeit painted) overhead door. A modern, human-scale door with a glass-block transom is located to the left (east) of the loading dock, while a glass block-infilled window is located to the right (west). The building is topped with a modest parapet with tile coping, beneath which decorative, corbeled and soldier brickwork encircles the building. The raised parapet includes signage that identifies the building’s current occupant, “Lakeside Products, Inc.” The remainder of the building is largely devoid of fenestration, less the glass block window opening along the structure’s east elevation.
This building was erected in 1927 to serve as the wholesale warehouse for the Esson Fruit Company, which incorporated in 1920. With a capital stock of $30,000, George Esson, W.P. Crawford and L.M. Bieloh established the company in Superior, Wisconsin. However, Esson, a former stone cutter, would move the firm to Ashland in 1921. That same year, he purchased the subject property (and presumably the business) from Herbert D. Ewer, who had been dealing in wholesale fruit in Ashland since circa 1899. In 1927, Esson built the subject brick warehouse (to replace the former frame building) at an approximate cost of $40,000. Non-payment of taxes in the early 1930s suggests that Esson was experiencing some financial difficulties and he died in 1934. The business was, thereafter, taken over by the Cohodas-Snyder Co., who retained ownership of the business through 1971. In addition to fruit, the firm also dealt in vegetables and candy and was, at one point, a distributor of Schlitz, Hamm’s and Leinenkugel beer. |
|---|
| Bibliographic References: | Citations for 2017 report information below:
Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Map of Ashland, Wis. (1909, 1923, 1923 [with updates to 1936]); Herbert D. Ewer to George Esson, Inc., WD (22 April 1921), 123/623, #66636; Building permit, 13 September 1927; owner, Esson Fruit Co., est. cost, $40,000; List of Incorporations, Appleton Post-Crescent, 3 May 1920, 11/3; Ashland City Directory, 1924, 1947; Construction of a brick building by the G. Esson Fruit Co. included in the “Wisconsin Weekly Industrial Review,” Marshfield News-Herald, 8 September 1927, 7/2; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1910, 1920, 1930; Esson’s move to Ashland is noted in the Superior City Directory, 1922; Tax deeds, non-payment cited in 1932, 1933 and 1934; Cohodas Bros. of Wisconsin (Green Bay) to Gordon and Marie Gucinski, WD (3 November 1971), 286/670, #177182. The 1971 deed includes a stipulation that the Gucinskis could not engage in the sale of fruit for a period of five years. |
|---|
