(By Reuben G. Thwaites, LL.D., Secretary and Superintendent
of State Historical Society of Wisconsin.)
Wisconsin Territory, partitioned from Michigan Territory,
was organized at Mineral Point, July 4, 1836. The first
legislature met at Old Belmont (now Leslie, Lafayette County),
October 25. Then ensued a long struggle over the location of
the permanent seat of government. There were seventeen applicants
(Fond du Lac, Dubuque, Portage, Helena, Milwaukee, Racine, Belmont,
Mineral Point, Platteville, Green Bay, Cassville, Belleview,
Koshkonong, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, Wisconsin City, and Madison),
several of them existing merely on maps issued by real estate
"boomers." Madison, one of the latter class, won, through
the influence of James Duane Doty, who had been circuit judge
for that portion of Michigan Territory lying west of Lake Michigan.
He, together with Stevens T. Mason, governor of Michigan Territory,
had, just previous to the contest, purchased from the United
State government about 1,000 acres in sections 13, 14, 23, and
24 in township 7, range 9 east. The Capitol Park, which they
laid out, is upon the common corners of these sections; it was
formally deeded to the Territory by the owners in a document
dated Mineral Point, January 16, 1839, and still preserved in
the State archives. The prospective town was called Madison,
from the fourth president of the United States. The first house
was built in Madison in the spring of 1837--a log boarding house,
for the accommodation of the workmen on the proposed Capitol.
In June, work was commenced upon the Capitol; its corner stone
was laid with appropriate ceremonies upon July 4.
The legislature met for the first time in Madison, November
26, 1838. The Capitol was not then in a suitable condition
for the sessions, which were held in the basement of the
old American House, where Governor Dodge delivered his annual
message. Here the legislature met and adjourned from day to day,
until temporary arrangements could be made for the reception
of members in the Assembly Hall. During 1836 and 1837, the federal
government appropriated $40,000 for the Capitol, Dane county
$4,000 and the Territorial legislature about $16,000; making
the complete cost of the old Capitol $60,000. The building, when
finished, was a substantial structure, which in architectural
design and convenience of arrangements at the time compared favorably
with capitols of adjacent and older states.
The Capitol proving inadequate to the growing wants of the
State, the legislature in 1857 provided for its enlargement.
By this act, the commissioners of school and university lands
were directed to sell the ten sections of land appropriated by
congress "for the completion of public buildings" and
apply the proceeds toward enlarging and improving the Capitol.
The State also appropriated $30,000 for the same object, and
$50,000 was given by the city of Madison. The work was begun
in the fall of 1857, and continued from year to year until 1869,
when the dome (the most satisfactory portion of the structure)
was completed.
The legislature of 1882 appropriated $200,000 for the construction
of two transverse wings to the Capitol, one on the
north and the other on the south sides thereof in order to
provide additional room for the State Historical Society, the
Supreme Court, the State Library, and the increasing staffs of
the State officers. November 8, 1883, the south wing fell while
in process of construction, an accident resulting in the death
of eight workmen. The height of the building from the basement
to the top of the flagstaff was 225½ feet, while the total
length from north to south (exclusive of steps and porticos)
was 396 feet, and from east to west, 226 feet. The total appropriations
for the enlargement of the Capitol and for the improvement of
the park, up to 1904, aggregated about $900,000.
Early in the morning of the 27th of February, 1904, a large
part of the interior of the Capitol was, with its contents,
destroyed by fire; the central portion and the west wing
particularly suffered. The department to suffer the greatest
loss was the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, which lost a
considerable library of expensive books, numerous traveling libraries,
and all its records.
A building commission, appointed by the legislature of 1903
(chap. 399) was, at the time of the fire, taking into
consideration the construction of a new and larger Capitol.
After the disaster the matter was taken up with vigor, and plans
for a new building were submitted to the legislature of 1905,
which passed an act (chap. 516) extending the powers and duties,
and somewhat reconstructing to composition, of the commission
of 1903. A new structure was authorized, covering not more than
95,000 square feet and costing not to exceed 40 cents per cubic
foot. An architect has been chosen by the commission, plans adopted
(save for modifications still under consideration), and excavation
for the west wing completed. The new building is to be of cruciform
design, with a central section bearing a massive dome, and upon
the site of the present. It will be constructed section by section,
in order that the business of the several departments may be
as little disturbed as possible.
The Capitol Park is seven hundred and ninety-two feet square,
cornering on the cardinal points of the compass, contains
fourteen and four-tenths acres, and is handsomely situated
on an elevation commanding a view of Lakes Monona and Mendota
and the surrounding Four Lake country. The Capitol stands in
the center of this square, and diagonally, its wings extending
to the cardinal points of the compass.