Our Building

 

309 DeWitt Street

 

Historic Downtown Portage

 

The Wisconsin State Register occupied many buildings and had many owners prior to its permanent location at 309 DeWitt. A.J. Turner and S.S. Brannan began its publication from a strongly Republican perspective in 1861 from offices in the Pettibone building, located at the southwest corner of W. Cook & DeWitt, which later burned.

Their politics were Abolitionist, and supported Mr. Lincoln in the Civil War. From 1871-73 Turner and Brannan published their paper at the corner of Canal & DeWitt. A.J. Turner's son, who became one of America's most prominent historians, Frederick Jackson Turner, recalled having "spent my youth in a newpaper office in contact with practical politics...where as local editior, my father reported to the community life with I helped to 'set up'..."

Subsequent owners, S.S. Rockwell &  Goodell moved the paper to the City Bank Building at the corner of Cook & Wisconsin. They published the Wisconsin Daily Register weekly and in 1886 published the Portage Daily Register as a daily. A.A. Porter purchased both papers, served at the editor, and located the business at the new Register Building in 1908. Except for three years, Porter owned the paper until 1942 when he sold it to the Comstock Publishing Company. Max Lavine purchased the paper in 1957 and later his son John continued its publicaton.

The dry goods firm of Moran & Arther and law offices of Ross Bennett and Boque and Sanderson also occupied the building. The ionic pilasers supporting the elliptical arches below the triangular pediment identify it with the Period Revival Commercial style.              It was remodeled in 1956 and 2007.