Wausau Station

Wausau station is a former passenger train station of the Milwaukee Road at 270 Grant Street in Wausau, Wisconsin. Wausau was on the Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Valley division and connected with the main line to Chicago at New Lisbon, Wisconsin. The station gained national attention when Wausau Insurance adopted the station as their corporate logo and launched a nationwide advertising campaign. The station ad first appeared in the January 16, 1954 edition of the ''Saturday Evening Post''. Even after passenger service ended in 1970 the station continued to be featured in television advertising on ''60 Minutes''. The station gave a national identity to the city of Wausau and the company thrived in a business that is normally dominated by those in major cities. As of 2023 the station is privately owned and is re-purposed as a cocktail lounge while the former baggage building is now a distillery.

Rail service

Train service arrived at Wausau in 1874 when the Wisconsin Valley Railroad reached the city. The first depot was located south of the present structure, between Washington and Jefferson streets. The original frame building was replaced by brick construction in 1880. The Milwaukee Road acquired Wisconsin Valley and commissioned the Chicago firm of Frost & Granger to design a new station in 1902. Sometime in the early 1920s a baggage and express building was added. Two daily trains served the station: The ''North Woods Hiawatha'' and ''The Tomahawk''. Marathon County Historical Society researcher Gary Gisselman described the station as, "...quite the hub for passengers as well as freight. A good part of our history revolved around that railroad depot there on Grant Street."

In the 1940s and 1950s service north of Wausau, which had extended as far north as Boulder Junction and Star Lake, began to be cut back. Service to Star Lake ended in 1943, with trains now terminating at Woodruff. In 1956 the ''North Woods Hiawatha'' name was dropped although service continued as a numbered train. In 1961 the Milwaukee Road proposed ending passenger service but reached a compromise with the state public service commission: Passenger service would continue but sleeping car service between Wausau and Chicago was eliminated and train frequency reduced. By 1968 ''The Tomahawk'' was discontinued and remaining passenger service terminated at Wausau. In 1970 all passenger service to Wausau ceased when the former ''Hiawatha'' service ended. Service was then curtailed to the New Lisbon, Wisconsin station on the Milwaukee's main line. When Amtrak assumed passenger train operations in 1971 that too was discontinued and bypassed.

After passenger service ended the station was used as a freight office until the Milwaukee Road sold it to Wausau Insurance in 1977.

The track alongside the station remains in freight service and is now owned by the Fox Valley & Lake Superior rail system.

Adaptive reuse

After Wausau Insurance acquired the building it announced plans to deconstruct the old depot and rebuild it on their new corporate campus. Although train service was gone the depot had become part of the city's identity and local residents mounted a campaign to preserve the station. The depot was saved when the local historical commission found a new tenant for the building, the local Boy Scout council who would use the renovated depot from 1980-2000. After the council moved to new quarters occupancy changed over several times until 2015 when it again became vacant. In 2018 it was purchased by its current owners and renovated into a cocktail lounge.

In 1999 a Boston-based corporation acquired Wausau Insurance. The station continued to be used in their advertising until 2009 when the Wausau brand was discontinued.

Replica station

In 1980 Wausau Insurance built an exact replica of the original station at 1800 Westwood Center Boulevard. It never had a physical connection to any railroad but was used for corporate meetings and entertainment. In 2015 it became a meeting and event rental facility.

References

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External links

Original Wausau station artwork as drawn by Everett McNear in 1953

Original floor plan of 1901 station

Second Milwaukee Road station, later used as a freight house and dispatcher's office

Replica train depot 2022 images

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
Wausau
Former railway stations in Wisconsin
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1902
Railway stations closed in 1970