Madison, the capital of Wisconsin

Belmont and Burlington

Wisconsin Territory’s first legislature met at Belmont on October 25, 1836, in a rented two-story frame building near what is now Leslie, in Lafayette County. The next session met at Burlington, in a building put up by Jeremiah Smith, which burned on December 12, 1837. Burlington is now in Iowa: it went to Iowa Territory in 1838.

A town on paper

At Belmont in 1836 the legislature fought a long battle over where to put the permanent seat of government. Madison won, although it existed only as a platted town on paper between two of the Four Lakes. Its victory owed much to the lobbying of James Duane Doty, a former federal judge who had bought land at the site that spring. The town was named for President James Madison, and construction of the first capitol began in 1837, using locally quarried stone and local oak. The territorial act fixing the seat of government at Madison is still printed in the Wisconsin statutes.

Fire and a new Capitol

The current Capitol is the fifth building to house Wisconsin’s government since 1836. After fire gutted much of the old capitol on February 27, 1904, the new building, designed by George B. Post and Sons, went up one wing at a time from 1906 to 1917, at a cost of about $7.2 million. The rotunda and dome were finished in 1915. Post’s design has four equal wings around a central dome, topped by a gilded statue called “Wisconsin.”

In 1917 the Assembly chamber received the world’s first electric voting machine, at a cost of $11,600. World War I put off the formal dedication, which did not happen until July 7, 1965, 48 years after the building was finished. The Capitol is a National Historic Landmark.

Visiting

Public guided tours have run since 1915. See the Department of Administration’s tour page for times.