| Additional Information: | Office of complex has crenelated roofline. Wausau Iron Works incorporated in 1908, specially in fabricated steel for bridges. In 1923 it developed the first Wausau Snow Plow. From 1972 to 1984 the firm used the name LOED Corporation, returning to its original name in 1984.
2018 survey report write-up: This industrial facility is comprised of a one-story brick office building that faces S. 10th Avenue, as well as an L-shaped structure that runs along West Street and then takes a ninety-degree turn and extends to the north. The facility is built of steel, concrete, brick and glass, along with a two-story, metal-sheathed portion that connects the formerly free-standing office to the manufacturing wing. The section along West Street includes a central monitor roof (the windows of which are covered with metal), while the one-story level includes rectangular window openings with either glass block or original, factory steel sash windows.
The Wausau Iron Works began in 1907 as a branch of the Northern Boiler & Structural Iron Works in Appleton; the firm manufactured steam boilers. In June 1908, the company reorganized as the Wausau Iron Works and formally incorporated as such with $25,000 in capital stock. Incorporators included A.C. Heinzen, F.W. Krause and Henry Ellenbecker. In 1910, the year the initial portion of the complex was built, the firm was fabricating and erecting steel bridges; this continued until 1933, when it sold that part of the business to the Wausau Construction Company. Starting in 1922 (or 1923), the firm began the manufacture of snow plows. This line of business continued until 1981. Although Anton Heinzen retired from the business in 1933, Heinzen family members continued to run the company until it was sold in 1971 to Edward Drott, former owner of the Drott Manufacturing Company. By 1971, the industrial complex had seen several additions to the 1910 facility (and through 1957). In 1972, the company name changed to LOED Corporation in order to reflect their product line of material handling equipment. In 1983, the Wausau Iron Works closed. The complex appears to stand vacant. |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) Bill Duckert, "LOED Corporation History," Sept. 4, 1975.
Citations for survey material below: Access to the property was not gained and, therefore, only aerial views provide the best evidence of the wing that extends north (which was completed in 1956). Please note that the complex adjacent to the west of this one (where demolition appears to have begun) was, and always was, a separate manufacturing facility.
“Hereafter a Wausau Company,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 17 June 1908, 2/4; “Big Improvement at Iron Works,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 11 June 1912, clipping in the Wausau Iron Works file, Marathon County Historical Society Research Library; “A.C. Heinzen, 58, Former Iron Works President, Expires,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 7 June 1937, 1/3; “Iron Works to Expand Here,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 24 April 1956, 1/4; “Spotlight on Industry: Wausau Iron Works Produces 2,000 Snowplows Annually,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 17 August 1963, 9; “Edward Drott Purchases Wausau Iron Works,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 26 August 1971, 3, 1-4 plus photo); “LOED Corporation History,” in Industries, Wausau Iron Works file, MCHSRL; “Wausau Iron Works is on Auction Block,” Wausau Daily Herald, 11 June 1984, 3. Dependent upon which sources are consulted, dates of additions are identified as either 1912, 1930, 1937, 1941, 1956 and 1957 or as 1916, 1930, 1945, 1956, 1959 and 1966. |
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