The Wisconsin State Capitol Building was constructed between 1906 to 1917 in the Beaux Arts style by George B. Post. The building was built to house the state senate, state house of representatives, and the Wisconsin State Government offices. The construction of the building took place after a fire destroyed the previous state capitol building, which was built in 1857-1869 and expanded in 1882. The new building houses the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Senate, Wisconsin State Assembly, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Wisconsin’s first state capitol was located in the village of Belmont, with the legislature meeting in a hastily constructed wood-frame building. The legislature quickly designated Madison as the state capitol, and the state government operated from the more developed Mississippi River port town of Burlington (now in Iowa) until a capitol building could be built in Madison. The first capitol building built in Madison was a relatively humble Greek Revival-style building constructed in 1837 featuring doric columns and a rusticated fieldstone exterior.
The second capitol building, built in stages between 1857 and 1869, replaced the Greek Revival-style building. It was designed in the Classical Revival-style with Romanesque Revival elements, and featured a dome inspired by the United Capitol Building. The building had semi-circular porticoes with corinthian columns, octagonal towers in the corners, and two wings extended in 1882. The building was not able to meet the growing population and government needs by the 1850s, and a new capitol building design was under study in 1903. However, in 1904, the old State Capitol burned down due to a gas jet igniting a newly varnished ceiling.
The construction of the new State Capitol Building began on the same site as the previous one, and the construction process focused on completing each wing one at a time to provide space for the state government with as much fiscal efficiency as possible due to financial limitations. Due to this, the north wing was built last, allowing the remaining portion of the previous capitol to serve as a space for the state government during the construction period.
The capitol building has a greek cross footprint with four five-story wings that are aligned with the compass directions and radial streets following the compass directions that slice through the surrounding street grid. This places the building at a unique 45-degree angle orientation relative to the edges of Capitol Square and most buildings on adjacent streets. The building is clad in Bethel white granite, sourced from Vermont, with an additional 42 types of stone from a total of eight states and six countries used on the interior of the building. The dome is the largest in the world to be entirely clad in granite and stands at 284 feet (86 meters) to the top of the statue on the dome, which was sculpted in 1920 by Daniel Chester French.
The exterior of the building’s wings feature porticoes on the ends with corinthian columns, arched windows on the third floor, rusticated bases with entrance doors, and decorative keystones. Decorative reliefs featuring festoons over the windows on the porticoes, cornices with modillions and dentils, and pediments with sculptural reliefs were created by several sculptors, and have different symbolism embodied by their design. The sides of the wings feature simpler cornices with dentils, pilasters and recessed window openings.
The center of the building has a rotunda, which is topped with a large dome that rises from a tall base. The dome is the tallest building in Madison, and there is a state law that no building within a one-mile radius of the capitol can be higher than the base of the columns, which stand at 187 feet, to preserve the visibility of the building from the surrounding landscape.
The building underwent a major renovation in the 1970s that added modern features to the interior while covering up many original features. Later projects between 1988 and 2002 restored the building while updating its functions for the modern needs of the state government. The building is a symbol of the Wisconsin State Government and a significant tourist attraction in Madison.