See all 178 Madison Landmarks online.

Since 1971 the city of Madison has designated 178 individual historic places as City of Madison Landmarks under the Landmarks Ordinance.  Landmarks are places (buildings, Indian mounds, and designed landscapes like Yahara River Parkway and the Capitol Square) that are individually significant under the criteria of the ordinance.

Landmarks are different from places listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Landmarks are designated under a local ordinance and are subject to special zoning considerations designed to compel the maintenance of their historic characteristics. Think of this designation as the “stick” incentive. The National Register of Historic Places, on the other hand, is the federal recognition program for historic properties. It places no restrictions on the treatment of the property and allows the owner to take advantage of tax credits for the cost of work done to maintain the character of the property – the “carrot.”  Ideally, Landmarks would also be listed in the National Register so owners would have the carrot along with the stick, but some do not meet the federal criteria.

You can hardly walk five minutes on the isthmus without passing a local Landmark.  Most of them, naturally, are in the oldest parts of the city, from University Heights and the University itself, through the downtown area where the city was first established, across the isthmus, and east to the Garver Feed Co. behind Olbrich Gardens.  Most of them are identified with a historical marker provided by the city, but as I noted in a recent post, about 70 of them have not gotten a marker yet.

Anyone can nominate a place for Landmark status. The nomination is reviewed by the Landmarks Commission.  If it is complete and the property meets the criteria, they forward the nomination to the Council for final approval and designation.

Here are some Landmark statistics:

• Number of Landmarks that are houses – 70
• Number that are/were commercial or industrial buildings – 47
• Number that are/were civic buildings or parks – 24
• Number that are house of worship – 9
• Number of Landmarks that are also listed in the National Register of Historic Places – 80
• Number of Landmark buildings attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright. – 4
• Number attributed to the firm of Claude and Starck – 18
• Number of Landmarks on State St. – 6
• Number on Williamson, Jenifer and Spaight Sts. combined (4, 7, and 4 respectively) – 15
• Highest number of Landmark nominations approved in one year (2002) – 17
• Second highest (1972) – 15
• Number of years since 1971 during which no Landmark nominations were approved – 6
• Number of years during which more than 10 were approved – 5
• Number of Landmarks built before 1900 – 73
• Number built after 1900 – 92
• Number built before Europeans settled in the New World (Indian mounds) – 11
• Number of Landmarks built after World War II – 2
• Number of those that are buildings – 1

To visit all 178 of our Landmarks is a labyrinthine task.  I tried a few years ago when I attempted to photograph each one.  I still don’t have a complete collection. But there are several websites that host information about all of our Madison landmarks:

• The city’s own website has a listing of all 178 Landmarks (in the order they were nominated) along with pdf versions of their nomination forms.
• The Historic Marker Database has entries for about 80 Madison landmarks and features photos of – what else – their historical markers. They also have basic info on each property.
• Historic Madison Inc.’s website has a list of all of the Landmarks too. They tell you which are also listed on the National Register, and have photos of many of the properties.

Category: Executive Director's Blog, Madison's Historic Places