The Wisconsin State Capitol Building, located in Madison, was designed by George B. Post in the Beaux Arts style and was completed between 1906 and 1917. It serves as the state house of representatives and the state senate, as well as houses the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin. The building replaced the previous state capitol, which burned down in February of 1904. The exterior of the building is clad in Bethel white granite with an additional 42 types of stone from a total of eight states and six countries being utilized on the interior of the building. The building has a unique 45-degree angle orientation relative to the edges of Capitol Square and most buildings on adjacent streets.
The building underwent a major renovation in the 1970s that covered up many original features, with later projects between 1988 and 2002 restoring the building while updating the building’s systems and functions for the modern needs of the state government. The exterior of the building’s wings features 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.
The Wisconsin State 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 stands 284 feet 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.
The first capitol of Wisconsin upon the formation of Wisconsin Territory in 1836 was in the village of Belmont, Wisconsin. Upon Burlington becoming part of the new Iowa Territory, the state legislature moved to a log and stone building on the present site of the state capitol, a relatively humble Greek Revival-style building constructed in 1837, which looked much like older capitol buildings in the eastern United States, with doric columns and a rusticated fieldstone exterior. 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.
By the turn of the 20th Century, the old Capitol had become inadequate for the growing needs of Wisconsin, which had become wealthy, industrialized, and heavily populated by that point, so study of a replacement capitol building began in 1903. In February 1904, the old State Capitol burned to the ground when a gas jet ignited a newly varnished ceiling inside the building, which spread quickly despite the building featuring a then-advanced sprinkler system, as the reservoir of the nearby University of Wisconsin was empty, which allowed the fire to spread out of control. The present building was built on the site of the previous building. Due to financial limitations, the construction process focused on completing each wing one at a time to provide space to the state government with as much fiscal efficiency as possible. The north wing was built last to allow the remaining portion of the previous capitol to serve as space for the state government during the construction period, with the central rotunda and dome also being built after the other three wings had been completed, as they served a more symbolic and less utilitarian purpose than the rest of the building.
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.
Overall, the Wisconsin State Capitol Building is an impressive structure that has served as the state house of representatives, the state senate, and the offices for the Wisconsin State Government for over a hundred years. Its unique design and Beaux Arts style make it stand out as a landmark in Madison and a symbol of the state of Wisconsin.