Smoldering tobacco ashes ignited an August 16, 1907, fire that scorched the West Branch Post Office building on West Main Street. "A blaze at the rear of the post office on Tuesday gave a scare to people in that part of town," The West Branch Times reported two days later. "At one time it appeared that the whole rear part was enveloped, but with quick work and a few pails of water the fire was extinguished. The emptying of a pipe among the rubbish is said to have been the cause."

The fire caused enough damage to prompt Postmaster Caleb H. Wickersham to decide it was time to replace the old wood-frame building he had bought in 1898 for $450. Wickersham, a sign and house painter who was forced to retire due to the not uncommon occupational hazard of lead poisoning, received his Congressional appointment as postmaster in 1897. Located on a busy railroad route, West Branch was then receiving five mail deliveries a day. For 10 years Wickersham handled mail in the old building.

When Wickersham announced plans for a new building in August of 1907, much was made of the fact that it wouldn't be a fire trap. "The building is to be practically fire proof with cement floor and either rubberoid or metal roof," The West Branch Times reported. "It will be one story in heighth (sic) with the front in pressed brick and cement trimming. A large arch will span the entire front, back of which will be a porch four feet wide which will protect the glass front. A large entrance door will prevent much of the crowding usually indulged in at a post office."

The town's post office was temporarily relocated August 24, 1907, to facilitate construction. Within a month, the brick walls were in place. By the end of October, the new building was in use. The West Branch Times called the building "a great improvement to our town." The new building also attracted some out-of-town interest. The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette published a photograph of the new building to illustrate a story that appeared November 9, 1907: "The office is a splendid improvement, a structure that is a credit to the progressive town of West Branch," The Gazette story said. "The building is practically fireproof. It is built of hand-pressed brick and vitrified tile; concrete floor and metal ceiling. It has a skylight over the distributmg table and has asbestos lined fluted steel shutters at back door and windows. It is 20x50 feet and has a 13-foot ceiling. There is an arched vestibule or porch in front 40 feet." Within a year of erecting the new post office building, C.H. Wickersham had signed the federal government to a 10-year lease worth $294 a year.

The Gazette story credits West Branch with having "the first office in this congressional district to get rural free delivery and the first in the state to get more than one rural carrier. It was also the first international money order office in Cedar County." Mail delivery had come a long way during Wickersham's tenure as postmaster. When interviewed by The Gazette in 1907, he boasted of "phenomenal growth" of postal services in and around West Branch since 1897. "Ten years ago the office gave employment to two persons and the earnings were but $850 a year, he told The Gazette. "Then the messengers got $79 a year. Now the salary of the postmaster and clerk is $1,300, the messenger $192, and there are five rural carriers with salaries of $900 each, so the earnings are now more than $5,000 a year."

Wickersham's building continued to house the West Branch Post Office until 1928, when postal operations were moved into a new building constructed by druggist Bert Gill at the southeast corner of Main and Downey streets. The 1907 post office building later housed a potato chip and popcorn business, a piano tuner, a seed corn warehouse, a garage, feed store, and, in recent years, a series of service stations.

.