At last I have some photos to share that aren't the same old stuff I had been taking pictures of over and over again!

 

I should warn you that there are something like 100 pictures here, so this may take a while.  And I've written a lot of text- feel free to skip over it, but I think it's interesting information.  So, that being said...

 

Madison's isthmus has a number of historic districts.  These usually consist of some old buildings interspersed among many newer ones, rather than solid blocks of historic buildings.  While this is partially due to the removal of some old buildings, I think it's largely because Madison's historic density tended to be more sparse, with densification occurring later on.  Anyway, here are photos from three such neighborhoods or districts on the isthmus: Mansion Hill, the First Settlement District, and Williamson-Marquette (containing the Third Lake Ridge historic district).

 

For reference, and because I like making maps. These are not official boundaries, but rather the parts I look at in this thread.  The arrow to UW is just for reference.

 

Mansion Hill

Mansion Hill is one of four or five districts that make up the "Capitol" neighborhoods- basically, downtown.  It's also where I live!

 

Known at various times as Yankee Hill, Aristocracy Hill, and Big Bug Hill, Mansion Hill was (as the modern name suggests) the presitgious neighborhood in its time.  (Actually, it was one of two, but the other is has been obliterated by now.)  Many large houses were built here during the 1850s.  Beginning in the 1950s, office buildings and apartment buildings began to invade the neighborhood, prompting concerned residents to ask the city to declare Mansion Hill a historic district.  In 1976, it became Madison's first historic district.  It's pretty much populated by students these days.

 

The center of Mansion Hill (indeed, the top of the hill) is the intersection of Pinckney and Gilman Streets and the mansions on each corner.  Interestingly, although this is right by Lake Mendota, the elite residents here seemed uninterested in lakefront property.

 

McDonnell-Pierce House (Mansion Hill Inn): Built in 1857, this house was turned into a fancy schmancy hotel in 1980s. It seems to be the only one of the four corner mansions that is not divided into apartments today.  http://www.mansionhillinn.com/

(Sorry, it's a little hard to get good views of some of these places because of the trees.)

 

Keenan House: Built in 1857; the current roof was added in 1870.  This one is my favorite!

 

Kendall House:  Built in 1855, the first of the four.  Its roof was also a later addition (keeping up with the style of the time).  Apparently there was a nice porch as well as some more roof decorations, but they're gone now.

 

Bashford House:  Built in 1855, now divided into apartments.  I don't really know any interesting details about this one.

 

Just down the street from the intersection is the old governor's residence.  The house was built in 1856.  Governor Jeremiah Rusk purchased it in 1883 and sold it to the state in 1885.  Thereafter, until 1950, it served as official governor's residence.  After that it was purchased by the University of Wisconsin.  It now houses Knapp fellows, who are senior grad students (dissertators, basically), and I guess these people do crazy intellectual things together.

 

Other notable mansions include the Brown House, built in 1863...

 

...and the Keyes House, built in 1853.

 

The front yard of the Keyes House, apparently having been divided from the rest of the property, was at some point due to have an apartment house built on it.  Residents successfully intervened, and the small property has been preserved as Period Garden Park.

 

Now just some Other Stuff in the neighborhood.  Here are several of the boring apartment buildings.  I live in one of them, but I'm not going to advertise which one.

 

 

 

Here's the Keenan House in its modern context- next door to an office building.

 

Another office building

 

And a few random houses.

 

 

 

One more thing.  Although this is not part of Mansion Hill, it's nearby, so I thought I'd include it.  This is the Gates of Heaven Synagogue, which was built in 1863 for some of Madison's first Jews.  Over the years, it has also served as several different churches, a kindergarten, a tea room, a funeral home, and a dentist's office.  When it was threatened with destruction (in the 70s, I believe), preservationists were able to have it moved from its original location to James Madison Park, where it sits today.

 

First Settlement District

As the name suggests, this is the area of the first American settlement in Madison.  King Street was the first business district, and for the first ten years or so of Madison's history it was the only defined street, with settlement not spreading far from it.  (Madison was a planned city, as is probably evident from a map, so there was no development of streets or anything based on the settlement pattern.  In fact, it might be fair to say that King Street and all the others existed before anyone even settled in Madison.)  This is basically a corner of downtown today, and is another of the Capitol Neighborhoods.  Of course, there aren't any buildings left from those earliest days, but there are some from the 1850s onward.

 

Here are buildings on and near King Street.

 

 

 

 

 

A sign in front of this building (the state Education building, I think) marks the site of Peck's Cabin, the first building in Madison.  For several years, it was the only building.  It functioned as an inn, basically, housing and entertaining capitol workmen and others who arrived to build Madison.  With Mrs. Peck running the place, she became an important figure in Madison's history.

 

 

 

Into the more residential part of the district.  Again, the houses date from the 1850s on; I'm not sure which ones I've captured here, and I'm too lazy to find out.  As you can see, there are a number of very new structures, too.

 

 

 

 

Modern town houses.

 

St. Patrick's

 

 

 

This church has become an Italian Restaurant

 

 

Another commercial district that began to develop a little later on grew in response to a couple of railroad lines and depots arriving.

 

Here's the railroad.

 

And here are the buildings.

 

 

 

 

Smokestacks of a power plant in the background; Madison Gas and Electric has recently announced that they will stop burning coal there in the near future.

 

German Restaurant

 

Williamson-Marquette

The actual name of this neighborhood is just Marquette, but I see Williamson-Marquette used often.  That name makes reference to Williamson Street, the principal thoroughfare through the neighborhood.  Willy Street, as it is more commonly called, is basically a street of dirty hippies.  Okay, I'll just call it "hip."  It's got the coffee shops, art galleries, etc.  Willy Street itself is very much a mixture of residential and commercial properties.  As you can imagine from my description, it's a pretty popular student neighborhood (according to one source, especially grad students), even though it's not close to campus.

 

Much of this neighborhood is designated the Third Lake Ridge historic district.  Third Lake Ridge refers to a low ridge along Lake Monona.  Prior to their naming in the 1850s, the four lakes in the vicinity of Madison were simply called First Lake, Second Lake, Third Lake, and Fourth Lake, in order from south to north.  Anyway, this neighborhood was essentially the first east side neighborhood to develop.  The predominant groups here were German, Yankee, and Norwegian (the Norwegians being later arrivals).  Like other neighborhoods, there are old buildings here and there with younger (although still fairly old) buildings in between.  The greatest number of 1850s buildings are, as one might expect, toward the western end, closer to downtown and the oldest part of the city.

 

The first chunk of these pictures consists entirely of buildings on Willy Street itself.

Machinery Row and the other buildings in the following several pictures are technically within the Marquette neighborhood, but really are a continuation of what I showed in the last part of the previous section.  (Things relating to the railroad.)

 

 

 

Candy!

 

This thing in a small park is more Willy Street-ish.

 

 

 

Refers to Madison's smoking ban, presumably.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Willy Street Co-op is the largest and best-known grocery co-op in Madison.  Hippie food!

 

 

These guys operate a food stand at the end of State Street on campus when it's not winter, as do several other vendors.

 

 

 

This is actually looking at a cross street, not Williamson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, into the residential streets by way of the Yahara River, which basically defines the eastern edge of the isthmus.  The Yahara River is the waterway on which the four lakes exist.  Across the isthmus, it has been straightened and incorporated into a parkway (not the road kind of parkway).  This occurred in the early 1900s, I believe.

 

At this point I'm very close to the opening into Lake Monona, so facing the opposite direction from the previous picture...

 

A quick look out on the lake.  I don't know if those people out there are doing it, but people can frequently be seen ice fishing on the lakes in the winter.

 

It may be difficult to see here, but someone has written "I LOVE JULIE" in giant letters in the snow on the lake (which fell just the night before).

 

Now the neighborhood.  Some of the following things are of particular historic interest, and some are not.

 

 

 

 

This is Orton Park, which occupies an entire block.  The site used to be the village cemetery in Madison's early days, before people realized that the cemetery was quickly running out of space.  A new cemetery on the west side was built, and all the bodies here were removed to there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted on the side of the community center

 

 

 

Toward the western end of the 'hood, here are some of the oldest houses (1850s).

 

 

 

 

 

---------------

 

Well, that's it.  Congratulations if you sat through all of those.  Bonus points if you read all the commentary!

 

To steal a post-ending technique from certain other posters... good night from "Mad City."

Madison is a great town.  Thanks for the pictures.

Quintessential Great Lakes...on two lakes!

Neat stuff! Madison looks like the kind of place I could enjoy living.

Wow...there was a little bit of everything in there.  I especially liked those Victorians there near the end.  And that one "brewery" building way back there with the bay windows was fantastic.

Wow! How did I miss this thread? (Because it was in foreign photos probably)

 

Oh how I love the midwest!

PigBoy I was considering transfering to Madison, do you go to UW?. If so, what do you think of the school itself and the students? Do you like it? I flew up there because my aunt and uncle live there and I was amazed at how clean it was.

I do go to UW, but as a grad student, and as such I have very little to do with the school outside my own department.  So it's a little hard to say much about the school in general or the student body.  I can't say I've perceived the school to be exceptional in most regards (in either good or bad ways).  Most notable--and really not much different from lots of other schools--would be the pervasive liberalism in the university and the city, and the fact that it's a big time party school.  I guess those can be either pros or cons, depending on one's point of view.  But as for what being an undergraduate here is like, I can't really comment.

 

Anyway, I have no complaints, so I like it.

Cool. Thanks. I plan on studying architecture and I assume they have a really good program there since UW is referred to as one of the "Public Ivys".

Really great pics Pigboy!  Madison looks quite charming.  It's nice to see you embracing the city where you are living instead of just missing Ohio.  Can you send me a postcard or something from "Mother Fools" - now that looks like an interesting shop!

Minus, all that snow, looks like a great city.  Love all the districts.

 

Thanks for the tour.  I can only imagine all the people when its warmer outside ;)

^A snow hater, eh?  See, I say the snow was the only thing making that a nice day!  Otherwise it would be just another brown and ugly winter's day. :-)

 

NOL, that Mother Fool's is a coffeehouse; want me to mail you a thermos?  I went to their web site and it sounds quite odd.  My favorite page is "Mother Fool's Fish Policy":

 

Ever wonder why Mother Fool's doesn't serve Fish?

-Er, no...

Besides the fact that we are a coffeehouse,

-Yeah, that's pretty much why I didn't wonder.

(But it goes on about how factory fishing is destroying the environment.)

I sure hope someone sees my note. I've been looking for photos of these neighborhoods, and I was so excited when this thread came up in my search. But none of the pictures are showing up. Instead, there's a JPEG that says "direct links prohibited." Pig Boy, are your pictures still out there?

You should PM Pig Boy.

Thanks for the tip, Ink. PigBoy's mailbox is full. I guess he hasn't been here in awhile.

 

GJ

I think Pigboy is too busy making maps of 'Ohio as a piano' or random colorful lines around the Boston area. Some of his photos are still on his galleries at http://www.flickr.com/photos/awwoodruff/

Thank you! At least now I have another way to contact him!

 

GJ