Post Office of the Week #12
LaValle, Wisconsin 53941
Photographed September 2025
LaValle is a village of about 400 people located at the confluence of two branches of the Baraboo River in northwestern Sauk County, just a few miles west of the city of Reedsburg on Wisconsin Highway 33 (one of my favorite state highways). The village grew up around a sawmill (later a gristmill) built in 1849 (just a year after Wisconsin’s statehood), and became a center for production of wood products like barrel staves and broom handles. The mill dam was removed in 2001, but the mill building and much of its original equipment were still standing just a few years ago. There’s not much to LaValle, but I always enjoy a visit to Hemlock County Park just outside of town.
Unfortunately, after a 2018 flood, many of the historic structures in the village, including the mill building, were demolished in 2022. One of those buildings, which then housed an evangelical church, had previously served as the village post office in the 1960s. LaValle’s first post office was established in 1856, and, for a time, the citizens of LaValle drew straws every two weeks to determine who would travel up to Reedsburg to pick up the town’s mail. LaValle’s current post office is located right along Main Street, across the street from the public library and fire department. I’m sure somewhere there’s a model name for the building design – it’s one of the most common post office designs I’ve come across. So far, I’ve spotted half a dozen others just like it. In fact, it more resembles a small chapel than LaValle’s previous post office building that eventually housed an actual church did. This is the kind of building that, when it’s no longer a post office, will be easily clocked as a former post office – the same way you can still identify old Pizza Huts or Kohl’s Food Stores by their architecture.