Property Record
326 STATE ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Peter Hamacher Building |
|---|---|
| Other Name: | Wisconsin Weekly Blade |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 88387 |
| Location (Address): | 326 STATE ST |
|---|---|
| County: | Dane |
| City: | Madison |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
| Range: | |
| Direction: | |
| Section: | |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1907 |
|---|---|
| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19832019 |
| Historic Use: | retail building |
| Architectural Style: | Commercial Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | State Street Historic District |
|---|---|
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report: In 1916, J. Anthony Josey established the first weekly Black newspaper in Madison, the Wisconsin Weekly Blade. The newspaper printed national and state news, social notes, church notes, and essays for Madison’s Black community. The Weekly Blade was located on the second floor of the Peter Hamacher Building, a commercial block at 326 State Street, which was constructed in 1907. Under the guidance of Josey, the paper began a “Black is Beautiful” campaign, encouraging dignity and pride in being Black in Madison and the State of Wisconsin. The paper was nominally affiliated with the Republican Party, not an uncommon condition for an African American paper in the early twentieth century with the memory of the civil war, emancipation, and reconstruction still somewhat fresh in the national consciousness. In 1917, the Blade spoke out editorially against involvement in World War I and advised against African Americans enlisting to fight in the war. The paper was a part of a larger national campaign among the Black press aligned with W.E.B. DuBois and Robert Abbott on political matters. The Wisconsin Weekly Blade also covered women’s political issues and suffrage in addition to expanding its coverage to discuss local news in Beloit, Oshkosh, and Milwaukee. While the paper did address the African American experience in the southern United States, it also consciously focused on the present and the future in Wisconsin with the guidance of Josey, who organized a meeting called a “Great Gathering of Representative Negroes of the State” in Oshkosh in 1916, and then again in Fond Du Lac the following year. In 1925, Josey moved to Milwaukee and took the newspaper along with him, establishing the Wisconsin Enterprise-Blade the same year. The Enterprise-Blade became the most popular Black newspaper in Milwaukee from 1925 to 1944. Both the Wisconsin Weekly Blade and later the Wisconsin Enterprise-Blade served as the voice of the African American community and consistently advocated against discrimination. |
|---|---|
| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |