115 West Washington Street (Appleton, Wisconsin)

115 West Washington Street was the address of a building on the southwest corner of Washington Street and Oneida Street in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, also known as the Prange Washington Street Building or simply the Washington Building.

History
The Washington Building was constructed in 1964 by the H.C. Prange department store company. The two-story masonry structure was intended to house offices of Prange's executives as well as other tenants, and it occupied the narrow space along the northern edge of a newly-built parking ramp for the neighboring Prange's store. The building was completed in July 1964. In addition to Prange's officials, the building's first tenants included Fashion-Aire Beauty Salon, Allen Bubolz & Walther Insurance Agency, and the office of optometrist Dr. James P. Mohr.

During the construction of The Avenue Mall in the mid-1980s, the Washington Building was one of the few structures on the block that was not demolished. Having already opened a store at Fox River Mall, Prange's was skeptical about keeping its downtown store open and participating in the construction of The Avenue Mall. As part of the negotiations over the building of the mall, Prange's sold its other downtown properties, and the Washington Building was purchased by F. John Barlow for $250,000. Prange's ultimately closed its downtown store in 1989.

When the city of Appleton began exploring options to deal with a lack of office space at City Hall in 1991, then located across Washington Street from the building, one option was to acquire the Washington Building and connect it to City Hall via a skywalk. While Barlow was willing to sell the building to the city, the Board of Public Works decided in March 1992 to reject the offer, stating that the building was too narrow and would require costly renovation to make it usable for city offices.

Ultimately, the city decided to move City Hall into the upper floors of the former Prange's building, now renamed City Center. The Appleton Redevelopment Authority agreed to sell that property to a condominium co-owned by the city of Appleton and the Aid Association of Lutherans, with the proceeds being used to acquire the Washington Building from Barlow for $150,000, and subsequently tear it down. On August 17, 1994, two days before city offices were scheduled to begin moving into City Center, the Appleton Common Council voted for a last-minute renegotiation of the deal, with alderman Walter Kalata arguing that the Washington Building was blighted, was not worth $150,000, and that the transaction constituted a "bailout" for Barlow.

In 1995, Barlow sold the building to developer Stephen Winter. Winter proposed rezoning the building for residential use, and converting the building's street-level retail spaces into eight small apartments intended for low-income residents. This plan was opposed by the city's Community Development Department, which recommended that the space be kept for retail use, but the city council's Plan Commission endorsed the proposal in October 1995. This plan was never carried out, and in May 1997 the building was stripped of its residential zoning.

The building was demolished in the spring of 2019, along with the parking ramp it had been built alongside (which had since become the city of Appleton's Blue Parking Ramp) and another neighboring building at 124 North Appleton Street. The site was converted into city-owned green space. As of January 2022, the location is part of the proposed future site of a mixed-use building which will form the second phase of the Urbane apartment and retail complex. The first phase is set to be built on the former Conway Hotel site at 128 North Oneida Street.

Tenants

 * Fashion-Aire Beauty Salon, opened July 8, 1964, moved to The Avenue Mall November 1993
 * Allen Bubolz & Walther Insurance Agency, opened July 1964
 * James P. Mohr, OD, opened July 1964
 * G.T. Sairs
 * The Paper Recruiter
 * Liteweight Diet Center
 * Filatco
 * Education Technology Centers
 * TechTran International
 * Bowlby's Candy, moved from 328 West College Avenue, opened April 22, 1985, closed January 1992, moved to The Avenue Mall
 * Squire Hairstylists
 * Sydney S. Jacobson, attorney
 * Mohr & Jorgensen, Drs. of Optometry, moved to 2229 North Richmond Street December 1, 1990
 * Century 21 Redemann & Schmidt
 * American Digital Cartography, opened 1998
 * TCGroup, Inc.
 * Waterford Builders
 * Houdini Academy for Children, opened 2005
 * Hietpas & Jones