The Wisconsin State Capitol Building was constructed in 1906-1917 and is a Beaux Arts-style building designed by George B. Post. It was built to replace the previous state capitol, which burned down in February 1904. The current building is the fourth state capitol building to house the state government since its establishment in 1848.
The first capitol of Wisconsin upon the formation of Wisconsin Territory in 1836 was in the village of Belmont, Wisconsin. Later, the state legislature moved to a log and stone building on the present site of the state capitol, a humble Greek Revival-style building constructed in 1837, which looked much like older capitol buildings in the eastern United States. The small second capitol building was the first state capitol of Wisconsin upon its ascension to statehood in 1848, but had become inadequate for the growing population and government by the 1850s.
The original building was demolished and replaced with a larger, Classical Revival-style structure with Romanesque Revival elements constructed in stages between 1857 and 1869, which featured a dome inspired by the United Capitol Building. The building was modified and extended in 1882 with new wings that increased the Classical Revival aspects of the building and helped to downplay the Romanesque Revival elements that originally were very prominent on the structure.
By the turn of the 20th century, the old Capitol had become inadequate for the growing needs of Wisconsin, which had become wealthy, industrialised and heavily populated by that point, so a study of a replacement capitol building began in 1903. The present building was built on the site of the previous building, with the construction process focusing on completing each wing one at a time to provide space to the state government with as much fiscal efficiency as possible due to financial limitations.
The building underwent a major renovation in the 1970s that added modern features to the interior and covered up many original features. In later projects between 1988 and 2002, the building was restored while also updating the building’s systems and functions for the modern needs of the state government.
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, which 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 with arched openings at the ground floor, windows with decorative pedimented headers on the second floor, arched windows on the third floor, two small two-over-two windows on the fourth floor, and a recessed fifth floor features small paired windows, hidden behind a balustrade that runs around the entirety of the building minus the ends of the wings, concealing a low-slope roof at the setbacks on the sides of the wings and above the corner porticoes.
In the center of the building is the rotunda which is topped with a large dome that rises from a tall base. 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 being utilized on the interior.
The building stands 284 feet (86 meters) tall to the top of the statue on the dome, which was sculpted in 1920 by Daniel Chester French, and is a personification of the state of Wisconsin, with the outstretched arm of the statue representing the state motto, “Forward”. The dome is the largest in the world to be entirely clad in granite, and is the tallest building in Madison, with a state law passed in 1990 stipulating that any building within a one-mile radius of the capitol is limited in height to the base of the columns of the dome, which stand at 187 feet, which preserves the visibility of the building from the surrounding landscape.
At the center of the building in the inside corners of the greek cross are semi-circular portions of the facade with semi-circular two-story ionic porticos with large terraces and grand staircases featuring decorative copper lampposts, decorative stone balustrades, concealed entrances to the ground floor underneath the terraces, and three doorways on the upper level, with drums surrounded by buttresses featuring small windows and domed roofs above the balustrade on the fifth floor.
The Wisconsin State Capitol Building remains an iconic and historic landmark in the heart of Madison, Wisconsin.