Antigo Post Office

The Antigo Post Office is over a century old and one of the many distinctive buildings found throughout Antigo’s downtown district. It represents a new era in Antigo’s development, as well as a peek into a bygone era of ornamental federal architecture. The structure has been in continuous use as Antigo’s official post office since its construction and the exterior remains mostly identical to its original design.

The postal service in early Langlade County was an informal institution. Mail would be delivered via horse or stagecoach from Wausau by private carriers, until a government contract organized the process in 1880. Mail would be delivered to the home or business of an appointed postmaster, who would then distribute it to recipients whenever they happened to visit. Thus, the homes and businesses of these postmasters served as the de facto post offices for the town. The first postmaster, appointed in 1879, was Niels Anderson, who was also Antigo’s first merchant and who delivered mail from his log cabin storefront.

The post office moved around as the office of postmaster changed hands, until in 1915 the federal government established an official, centralized post office for the city of Antigo. The land the building would sit on was purchased from the Antigo Canning Company in 1911 for $8,250 (inflation-adjusted, about $250,000 in 2022) and the building itself was constructed for a cost of $60,000 (about $1.8 million in 2022).

The building itself represents a type of ornate federal architecture that died out during the Great Depression. Sporting marble floors and a vaulted ceiling, the Antigo Post Office has an individual character that is absent from many government structures built after it, when standardized designs and limited decoration became the norm.

The post office building has remained largely faithful to its original construction, with most of its ornamentation intact. Over the years, the interior has been remodeled and a wheelchair ramp has been added to the entrance. It remains a prominent landmark in downtown Antigo.

 Robert Dessureau, “Chapter XXVII: The Antigo Postoffice,” in The History of Langlade County (Antigo, WI: Berner Bros. Publishing Co., 1922), 147–148.

Antigo Post Office. National Register of Historic Places. Electronic. Asset ID: 79128638-033c-4866-bf01-661c3495d71c. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/79128638-033c-4866-bf01-661c3495d71c#.