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1.
Bradley House
106 N. Prospect Avenue
1909
Sullivan and Elmslie, Architects
The Bradley house is one of the
masterpieces of Prairie School design and is among
Madison’s most important architectural landmarks.
The house was a present from Chicago plumbing
magnate Charles Crane to his daughter Josephine and
her husband Harold C. Bradley, a professor of
chemistry at the UW. It is one of only a few
residences designed in the office of Chicago
architect Louis Sullivan, one of the greatest
architects of all time. George Elmslie executed much
of the design, which incorporated daringly
cantilevered sleeping porches, raked brick joints,
banded leaded glass windows, widely flaring eaves
and beautiful Sullivanesque ornament. Severely
damaged by fire in 1972, the house was restored by
the Sigma Phi Society, its residents since 1914.
Designated May 18, 1971
National Historic Landmark
2.
Pierce House
424 N. Pinckney Street
1857-1858
August Kutzbock, architect
Built in the early Romanesque Revival
style, this Prairie du Chien sandstone house
exemplifies the ornate designs of local architect
August Kutzbock. It was designed for Alexander A..
McDonnell, contractor for the east wing of the State
Capitol, which was being constructed at the same
time, also in the unusual Romanesque Revival style.
Among later occupants of the house were John
Garnhart, a plow manufacturer, and his wife Roberta,
who after husband’s death continued to live in the
house and eventually married Orasmus Cole, chief
justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court; Sarah
Fairchild Dean Conover, a noted society leader; and
Carrie and George Pierce, a power company executive.
Designated May 18, 1971
National Register of Historic Places
3.
Keenan House
28 E. Gilman Street
1857
August Kutzbock, architect
Originally built in the early
Romanesque Revival style, this house was altered in
1870 by the addition of a Mansard roof. The
Milwaukee cream brick structure was built for, but
never occupied by, Napoleon Bonaparte Van Slyke,
first cashier of the Dane County Bank. It is said
that he changed his mind about living in the house
when Laura, his first wife, died. The house was sold
to James Richardson, a business partner of Van Slyke
and one of Madison’s early business leaders, and
next the owner was James Robbins, miller at the
Yahara River flour mill. Chauncey Williams, another
entrepreneur from New York state, added the
“French” roof in 1870. Dr. George Keenan,
prominent Madison surgeon, lived in the house with
his wife, Mary, from 1900-1916.
Designated June 15, 1971
4.
Smith house
5301 Milwaukee Street
1855
Built of sandstone and cap limestone
from a nearby quarry, this residence is an example
of the Greek Revival style. The building was
constructed as a farmhouse, but it is said that it
also served as a halfway house for travelers between
Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien. In 1848, Alexander
Smith bought this land and built this house in 1855.
The house remained in the same family until 1920.
Designated November 2, 1971
5.
Gilmore House
120 Ely Place
1908
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
The only Frank Lloyd Wright design
built in Madison during his Prairie School years, is
this internationally-famous house built for Prof.
Eugene A.. Gilmore and his wife in 1908. The site,
located at the highest point in University Heights,
offered Wright a magnificent opportunity. He
positioned the house just below the crown of the
hill and placed the principal living rooms on the
second floor, providing the Gilmores with unrivalled
panoramic views of Madison and the surrounding Four
Lakes region. Copper-roofed wings extend outward
from the forward-facing center pavilion with its
triangular balcony. The resulting composition soon
earned the building the local nickname of “the
airplane house.”
Eugene A.. Gilmore came to Madison with
his family from Boston in 1902, having left his
private law practice to join the University of
Wisconsin law faculty. He quickly earned a national
reputation as an educator and administrator. In 1922
he was appointed Vice-Governor of the Philippine
Islands. In 1930 he returned to the U.S. to become
the law school dean and later president of Iowa
State University.
Designated January 17, 1972
National Register of Historic Places
6.
Beecroft House
514 N. Carroll Street
1911
This elegant house was built for
Madison dentist William Beecroft and his wife Lucy.
Dr. Beecroft was known in Madison as “Mr.
Theater” because of his activities in developing
moving theaters, included the Strand and the
Orpheum. The house is a fine example of the Prairie
style, with banded leaded glass casement windows and
wide eaves. Because of similarities to other known
Claude and Starck works, it seems probable that
Claude and Starck designed this house.
Designated January 17, 1972
7.
Old Governors’ Mansion
130 E. Gilman Street
1856
Constructed of locally quarried
sandstone and designed in the Italianate style, this
house was originally built for Catherine and Julius
T. White, Secretary of the Wisconsin Insurance
Company. The Whites sold the house in 1857 to one of
Madison’s first settlers, George P. Delaplaine and
his wife, Emily. Delaplaine was secretary to
Governors Farwell and Dewey and co-owner of one of
the largest real estate development firms in the
city. In 1867 the house rose to greater social
prominence when it was purchased by State Senator J.
G. Thorp, a millionaire lumber baron, and his wife,
Amelia. In 1870, the Thorp’s young daughter,
Sarah, married Ole Bull, the world-famous
60-year-old Norwegian violinist in one of the most
lavish weddings the town had ever seen. Governor
Jeremiah Rusk acquired the house in 1883 and sold it
to the State of Wisconsin two years later. Conover
and Porter designed renovations in 1897 which
including a sweeping wrap-around veranda with Ionic
columns, which was drastically reduced in size in
the 1960s. The house served as the executive mansion
for seventeen governors from 1885 to 1950.
Designated January 17, 1972
National Register of Historic Places
8.
Bashford House
423 N. Pinckney Street
1855
This house is an example of the Italian
Villa style executed in sandstone. Its square,
hipped roof, three-story tower, or campanile,
is unique among old Madison residences. The house
was first occupied by H. K. Lawrence, banker and
secretary of the Madison and Watertown Railroad.
From 1865 to 1915 the house was owned by Morris and
Anna Fuller. Morris Fuller was a distributor of
agricultural implements, a business that was to
become one of the mainstays of the Madison economy.
The Fullers’ daughter, Sarah, married lawyer and
politician Robert Bashford and they lived in the
house together from 1889 until 1911. August Kutzbock
is known to have done some of the drawings for
finishing the house, and it is probable that he also
drew the original design.
Designated January 31, 1972
National Register of Historic Places
9.
Van Slyke House
510 N. Carroll Street
1856-1858
August Kutzbock, architect
Originally built for Samuel Fox, a
successful hardware merchant, the house was soon
sold to Napoleon Bonaparte Van Slyke and his second
wife Annie. One of the most important players in the
development of Madison, Van Slyke came to Madison
from New York state in 1853 and helped form the
first abstract and title company and one of the
first banks. He was also one of the first regents of
the UW, serving for over 30 years, and was
quartermaster for Camp Randall during the Civil War.
He lived in this house for forty-nine years.
The house is a refined and skillfully
detailed example of the Italianate style that can
compete in excellence, if not necessarily size, with
the best Italianate style houses in the country. The
stonework is also rare and beautiful. It is done in
a form of stone laying known as “block and
stack” in which large blocks are alternated with
smaller stones and then the whole wall is covered in
raised mortar joints to highlight the variation in
stone sizes. This is a Germanic technique that may
be unique in the United States to the Dane
County-Sauk County area.
Designated January 31, 1972
10.
Kendall House
104 E. Gilman Street
1855
August Kutzbock, architect
John E. Kendall from New York built
this sandstone home in 1855, the first of the four
houses at the corner of Pinckney and Gilman; but he
sold it soon after construction and it is not clear
which of several early owners may have actually
lived in the house. In the late 1860s, at the height
of Madison’s resort era, this mansion was used as
a summer home by the St. Louis family of D. R.
Garrison, president of the Southern Pacific
Railroad. The house was originally styled by August
Kutzbock in the Italianate mode, with a low, hipped
roof and a cupola. However, in 1873 a Mansard roof
was added to adapt it to the more modern French
Second Empire style.
Early in the 20th century,
the house was graced by a frame porch across the
entire front of the first floor. Ironwork with
spiked finials danced along the roof line. Although
not as elegant appearing as when constructed, the
Kendall House remains a focal point on Mansion Hill.
Designated January 31, 1972
11.
Keyes House
102 E. Gorham Street
1853
This brick Italianate style house was
originally built for Lansing W. Hoyt, a local land
speculator, and his wife Melvina in 1853. It was
later occupied Elizabeth and Elisha W. Keyes, a
powerful state and local political “boss” who
was appointed postmaster by Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
In the 19th century postmasters wielded a
great deal of political power because they
controlled many jobs that they could give to
political supporters. Keyes was elected Mayor of
Madison in 1865 and again in 1866 and 1886. In the
Progressive era, “Fighting Bob” La Follette made
Keyes the symbol, somewhat undeservedly, of the
political corruption of big business.
The original front yard of this house
has been preserved as Period Garden Park. Area
residents campaigned successfully to protect this
open space after plans to build a large apartment
house on the site were announced.
Designated January 31, 1972
12.
Brown House
116 E. Gorham Street
1863
This cream brick house is in the
Italianate style. The stately neo-classical veranda
dates to the turn-of-the-last-century. Timothy Brown
came to Madison in 1855 at the request of a fellow
New York Stater, Napoleon Bonaparte Van Slyke, to be
part of a growing Yankee contingent on Mansion Hill.
Brown quickly became cashier and principal
stockholder of the Dane County Bank. With others, he
reorganized it into the First National Bank in 1863
(which has evolved into the present U S Bank). In
1870 Brown took control of the floundering Madison
Gas Company and turned it into a financially sound
business. Brown’s real estate holdings and
business investments made him a well-known
commercial figure and one of Madison’s wealthiest
people. In civic affairs, he served as treasurer of
the UW Board of Regents, alderman, county
supervisor, and leader of the Dane County Cavalry
during the Civil War. His wife, Elizabeth, continued
to live in the house until her death in 1896. Mrs.
Brown’s house became the center of a family
compound, as sons built their own houses near-by.
Later residents of the Brown family
homestead included three justices of the state
supreme court, a law partner of Robert M. La
Follette, and grandson Timothy Brown. The original
rambling carriage house is just east of the house.
Designated March 6, 1972
13.
Stevens House
401 N. Carroll Street
1863
This stately Italianate house was built
for Daniel and Mary Jane Tenney. Tenney came to
Madison in 1850 to typeset for his brother’s
newspaper, the Argus. Tenney then went to law
school, his family moved to Chicago in 1870 and
returned to Madison in 1897, where, among many civic
activities, he gave the funds to develop Tenney
Park. In 1870 Breese Stevens purchased the house and
it remained in the family for about 100 years.
Another prominent lawyer, Stevens had extensive
business interests, served as mayor for two terms,
and as UW regent for many years. His wife, M.
Elizabeth Stevens, was one of the founders of the
Madison Woman’s Club.
Designated March 6, 1972
14.
St. Patrick’s Church
404 E. Main Street
1888-1889
John Nader, Architect
Designed in the Romanesque Revival
style, this church was designed by local architect
and civil engineer, John Nader, known at the time as
Madison’s grandfather of architecture. It was the
third Roman Catholic Church building to be erected
in downtown Madison, the others being St.
Raphael’s and Holy Redeemer. As one might guess
from the name, the church was attended by many of
the Irish Catholic families in the city.
Designated March 6, 1972
National Register of Historic Places
15.
Mears House
420 N. Carroll Street
1870-1871
This lovely Italianate house was built
for James and Lois Mears. Mears was a civil engineer
who came to Madison from New York state in 1852. In
Madison he took up the dry goods business, later
changing to lumber. In the Civil War he served as an
Army paymaster. The house features characteristic
Italianate details, including doubled brackets under
the eaves, a shallowly pitched hip roof brick corner
pilasters, a row of brick dentils (teeth) under the
cornice and carved stone lintels. The classical
porch dates to the early 20th century.
Designated March 6, 1972
16.
Old Spring Tavern
3706 Nakoma Road
1854
The Spring Tavern
is the oldest building in Nakoma and one of the
oldest in Madison. It was built by Charles Morgan, a
native of Connecticut who came to the western
frontier to improve his health. From 1860 to 1895,
the Gorham family used the building as an inn,
serving travelers journeying between Milwaukee and
Platteville on the historic road of which Nakoma
Road is now a part. The Tavern sits on a large,
steeply sloping lot. Its most visible facade, the
one with the two-story veranda added in the 1920s,
faces east toward Nakoma Road, but the Council Crest
side is the original front of the house. This fine
example of the Greek Revival style is built of brick
made from clay dug from the slope behind the house
and fired in a kiln that Morgan erected near the
Duck Pond just across Nakoma Road. Typical Greek
Revival features include returned eaves, multi-light
double-hung windows, and a main door enframed with
side lights and a transom light above.
Designated March
20, 1972
National Register
of Historic Places
17.
Bowen House
302 S. Mills Street
1855
This
Italianate farmhouse was built on a 60-acre parcel
for Seth and Harriet Van Bergen in 1855. Both Van
Bergens were early pioneers. Harriet settled with
her family in Jefferson County in 1838 and Seth
arrived in Madison in 1842. Four years after they
moved into their stone farmhouse, the Van Bergens
sold the farm to Dr. James and Susan Bowen. Dr.
Bowen was the first homeopathic physician in
Madison, founded a leading Madison bank, and served
as Madison’s mayor in 1871. He died in 1881 and
his daughter, Susan, and her husband, Wayne Ramsey,
moved into the farmhouse. The house remained in the
family until 1923. During the time the Ramseys owned
the house, new housing developments sprang up all
around the farm and soon they had sold off all but
the immediate surrounding lot. The family donated
the land for St. James Roman Catholic Church, which
was named in Dr. James Bowen’s honor.
Designated
April 17, 1972
National
Register of Historic Places
18.
Stoner House
321 S. Hamilton St.
1855
This
Italianate house, built of our local sandstone, was
constructed in 1858 for Henry and Janet Staines. The
Staines family were Scottish immigrants who first
settled in Sauk County and later moved back there.
In 1863 the house was briefly owned by a butcher
Robert and Christina Nichols. In 1865 the house was
sold to Joseph J. and Harriet Stoner, who lived
there for two decades. Joseph Stoner had an
interesting occupation – he published birds’-eye
views of cities all over the country, views which
now are significant records of the history of our
nation in the 19th century. In 1884 the
Stoners retired and lived on a farm outside of
Madison, moving to California in 1902. Joseph Stoner
died in 1917. The next owners were plumber Thomas
and Susan Regan.
From
1922 to 1957, Varley and Ellen Bond owned the house
and undertook significant renovations, but afterward
it was used as offices until it fell into such
disrepair that it stood vacant and deteriorating for
over a decade. In 1983 the Wisconsin Architects
Foundation received the building and moved it to the
corner of the block to make way for a condominium
project. The Foundation undertook a major
restoration of the building and have had their
offices there since.
Designated
April 17, 1972
National
Register of Historic Places
19.
Leitch House
752 E. Gorham Street
1857-1858
The
superb William and Jane Leitch house is one of
Madison’s most important nineteenth century
buildings and our best example of the mid-19th
century Gothic revival style. William Leitch was
born in England, came to New York in 1829 and moved
to Madison in 1858, having written ahead to get
construction started on his family’s new house.
Madison sandstone was used for the walls, slates
covered the roof and woodwork was carved in lacy
medieval designs. The house cost almost $14,000 to
build, in a day when a good frame house could be
built for $500.
Leitch,
a merchant, was elected Mayor of Madison in 1862,
1863 and 1864. The next owners were Carolyn and M.
Ransom Doyon, Doyon serving as Mayor in 1888 and
1889. The Doyons were followed by Bella and Nils
Haugen, a lawyer and prominent figure in the
progressive movement.
Designated
April 17, 1972
National
Register of Historic Places
20.
Ely House
205 N. Prospect Avenue
1896
Charles Sumner Frost, architects
Designed
by regionally important architect, Charles Frost of
Chicago, the Richard and Anna Ely house is an
elegant late Victorian version of the Georgian
Revival. The Georgian Revival had been popular on
the east coast for some time, but this is one of the
first to be built in Madison. This house follows the
general design of the 1759 Longfellow house in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, but embellished with
Victorian details. Professor Ely was a nationally
known economist whose progressive, socialist
teachings, caused him to be tried in 1894 by the
Board of Regents in a famous formal inquiry which
resulted in Ely’s vindication and in the
declaration of academic freedom: “whatever may be
the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we
believe that the great state University of Wisconsin
should ever encourage that continued and fearless
sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can
be found.”
Designated
January 7, 1974
National
Register of Historic Places
21.
Morehouse House
101 Ely Place
1937
George Fred Keck, architect
The
Edward and Anna Morehouse house is an excellent
example of a major work by an important regional
architect, George Fred Keck of Chicago, in a very
rare style for Midwestern domestic architecture,
that of the true International style. Salient
characteristics of this style are flat roofs, smooth
wall surfaces and windows with minimal exterior
reveals, appearing to be a continuation of the
surface. There is also a balance of parts to be
found instead of one-part axial symmetry, and
windows are used in vertical or horizontal ribbons,
frequently turning the corner. Keck was one of the
first architects to seriously address passive solar
design and he was the architect for the 1933 Chicago
World’s Fair “House of Tomorrow.”
Designated
January 7, 1974
22.
Buell House
115 Ely Place
1894
Conover and Porter, Architects
When prominent Madison attorney and
real estate developer, Charles E. Buell and his
wife, Martha, built this imposing house for their
family in 1894, it was the first one built on the
crown of University Heights. The house was quickly
dubbed “Buell’s Folly” by local wags and the
earliest pictures of the Heights, taken from Bascom
Hill, show why. The house sat in solitary but highly
conspicuous grandeur on a naked hillside outside of
town in a location which did not seem to bode well
for the future. It was Buell, however, who had the
last laugh. When he died in 1938, his fine home was
completely surrounded by the homes of Madison’s
elite, many of which rested on lots sold by Buell
himself.
Buell’s house was designed by the
prominent local firm of Conover and Porter, and is a
fine example of the late Queen Anne style deeply
influenced by shingle style examples. Conover and
Porter and best remembered today for their
castle-like “Old Red Gym” and Science Hall on
the UW campus.
Designated January 7, 1974
23.
Gates of Heaven Synagogue
300 E. Gorham Street
1863
August Kutzbock, architect
Noted Madison architect, August
Kutzbock, who was trained in Germany, designed this
little gem of a building. He also used this
distinctive Germanic style for the Pierce and Keenan
Houses at Pinckney and Gilman Streets. Gates of
Heaven (Shaare Shomain in Hebrew) was built in 1863
on W. Washington Avenue for Madison’s first Jewish
congregation. The building later served as the first
Unitarian Society Meeting House, the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, the First Church of
Christ, Scientist, the English Lutheran Church and a
funeral home. It was moved to this site in 1971
through the efforts of local citizens and the City
of Madison to save it from the wrecking ball.
Designated May 20, 1974
National Register
of Historic Places
24.
Jacobs House I
441 Toepfer Avenue
1937
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect
Built for Herbert Jacobs, Madison
journalist, and his wife, Catherine, this L-plan
structure is the first of Wright’s “Usonian”
houses, a term he coined for houses he designed for
middle income families. The horizontal emphasis of
the earlier Prairie School is evident. Innovate
construction techniques used in this house include a
masonry core, pre-fabricated sandwich walls,
elimination of basement and attic spaces and radiant
heat flooring. The Jacobs family later commissioned
Wright to build a second house for them, the Jacobs
II house, which is also a Madison Landmark.
Designated May 20, 1974
National Historic Landmark
25. Steensland House
315 N. Carroll Street
1896
Gordon and Paunack
The Halle and Sophia Steensland House
was designed by the noted local architectural firm
of Gordon and Paunack. It is an excellent
representative of the Victorian love of multiple
materials and complicated and elegant details,
including terra cotta ornament and leaded glass
windows.
Halle Steensland was born in Norway in
1832 and came to Madison as a young man. Starting
work as a store clerk, he eventually owned a grocery
business, served as president of a major insurance
company and founded the Savings Loan and Trust Co.
(later the Bank of Madison). He was also prominent
in Scandinavian circles and wrote for the Norwegian
press, traveled all over the world, served as Vice
Consul to Sweden and Norway and was well-known for
his generous philanthropy.
Designated May 20, 1974
National Register
of Historic Places
26.
Dean House
4718 Monona Drive
ca. 1856
Nathaniel W. Dean was one of
Madison’s early pioneers. He was born in
Massachusetts and came to Madison in 1842. He and
his brother ran a general store that for several
years was the leading commercial business in the
village. In 1847 he married Harriet Morrison,
daughter of one of Madison’s earliest settlers. In
1857 Dean retired from the mercantile trade to
devote his time to managing his land interests in
the Town of Blooming Grove, which were extensive.
This cream brick Italianate farmhouse was one of
several that he owned, and because of its generous
proportions was probably the one that his family
lived in when they were not in Madison. He continued
to expand his land interests into various other
parts of Wisconsin and beyond, including a fine farm
in Kansas. The Deans’ downtown house was where the
Park Hotel is now, and indeed, Dean built the
original Park Hotel and moved the house off the site
to make room for it. He died in 1880.
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