| 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.
1983: Hotel Wausau served as the leading hotel from 1925 until the early 1970s when it was converted to residential units.
2018 survey report write-up: Constructed with a reinforced concrete frame, this eight-story, Classical Revival former hotel building is clad with brick and trimmed with white Bedford stone. The street level includes a continuous storefront along N. 3rd Street, while the Scott Street elevation features individual storefront windows, as well as individual, round-arched, multiple-light openings. The structure’s primary entrance is located along Scott Street. It is identified by an overhanging canopy and is set off along the top of the building by a full pediment. Within that pediment is a cartouche incised with the letter “W” for Wausau. A narrow story above the street level is among the most ornate of the building and includes carved stone ornamentation that regularly alternates with window openings. A stone balustrade runs the perimeter of the building, atop which is a pair of stone urns. Stone pediments, as well as garland and swag motifs accent the regularly arranged windows throughout the building.
Built on the site of Hotel Bellis, Hotel Wausau was completed in 1925 by Walter Schroeder of Chris. Schroeder & Sons Co. and was modeled after the Roberts Hotel in Muncie, Indiana. At the time it was built, this hotel represented the fifth Wisconsin hotel in the Schroeder chain and the sixth overall. Designed by the Chicago firm of Holabird & Roche and built with a total of 257 rooms, the $1,375,000 hotel boasted a two-story lobby finished in walnut, a ballroom, as well as multiple tenants, including a coffee shop and a barber. The hotel continued to serve the community as Hotel Wausau (and later as Motor Hotel Wausau) into the late 1960s, at which time it was purchased by G.R. Viele of Wausau and John B. Straub of Milwaukee. Their intent was to turn it into “a super convention facility and luxury downtown motor inn,” in order to compete with the new hotels and motels that had sprung up near the highway. That plan was soon abandoned and the hotel was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Ray Goldbach, who renamed the hotel “The Landmark.” They remodeled the interior to include ninety-two (efficiency, one-bedroom and two-bedroom) apartments and eighteen commercial offices. In 1986, the Goldbachs sold the building to realtor Jack Williams for $1,275,000. The building continues to function as an apartment building, with commercial spaces, including a restaurant.” |
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| Bibliographic References: | (A) "New Hotel Gives Wausau New Prestige," Wisconsin Land of Lakes Magazine, Jan. 1927, p. 15.
Wausau Daily Herald 6/23/1998.
Citations for survey report information below: 2018 “Formal Opening of Hotel Wausau Last Night and Tonight,” Wausau Daily Record-Herald, 18 July 1928, 12-page Hotel Wausau Edition, 1/1-3; “Many Concerns Furnish Help in Mammoth Hotel,” Hotel Wausau edition, 7/1. As of 1925, the Schroeder hotel chain included the following: Hotel Wisconsin and Hotel Astor (both in Milwaukee), Hotel Retlaw (Fond du Lac), Hotel Northland (Green Bay), Hotel Loraine (Madison) and Hotel Duluth (Duluth, Minnesota); Tom Alesia, “The Landmark Continues its Legacy,” Wausau Daily Herald, 9 April 1989, 1E. Wausau Beautiful includes an entry for the Hotel Wausau and it is in that book (page 37) that it is cited that a Holabird & Roche employee noted that the hotel was modeled after a hotel in Muncie, Indiana. Following a quick Google search of historic hotels in Muncie, it was determined that Hotel Roberts, built in 1921, was used as the model. Rising six stories and executed in the Classical Revival style, that hotel does, in fact, resemble Hotel Wausau with its formal design and swag (or garland) motifs.
City in the Pinery, A Guide to Wausau's Historic Architecture, The City of Wausau, 1983.
City in the Pinery, A Guide to Wausau's Historic Architecture, The City of Wausau, 1984. |
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