Manchester’s, Before, and After
By Michael Bridgeman
This is the first in an occasional series of posts that will focus on a single site and how it has changed over time.
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The Capitol Square Manchester’s store at the corner of Mifflin Street and Wisconsin Avenue was demolished in 1985, four years after it closed. (Photo: Michael Bridgeman) Click to enlarge.
A few months ago, I came across a photograph I took in 1985 of the partially demolished Manchester’s building on the Capitol Square. The department store, long a premiere shopping destination, had closed not too long before I moved here. Still, I was sorry to see it go. The forgotten photo prompted me to look at what has stood on this corner over the last 200 years and what I might learn about Madison.
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The Old Post Office
More than 10,000 years ago, native peoples began populating the area that would become Madison, with the Ho-Chunk living here when Europeans arrived. While there is no evidence of indigenous settlement on this particular spot, the Ho-Chunk planted corn nearby where Pinckney Street now runs.
A detail from Albert Ruger’s 1867 view of Madison shows the three-story City Hall to the upper left while the future post office plot across Wisconsin Avenue is occupied by small structures. The Capitol, the second in Madison, is depicted with the never-built dome designed by Donnel & Kutzbock, not the large, neo-classical dome later designed by Steven Vaughan Shipman that was completed in 1873. [Image: Library of Congress] Click to enlarge.
Madison was only a town on paper when chosen as capital of the new Wisconsin Territory in 1836. The following year, the postmaster of the nascent city engaged fur trader Michel St. Cyr to build a cabin on this lot, the first house in Madison according to historian Stuart Levitan. Unfortunately, the cabin burned before it was occupied.
A bird’s-eye view made 30 years later shows church steeples dotting the skyline along with commercial buildings and hotels on the Square. In 1869, funding was approved for a federal courthouse and post office to be built across from City Hall (1856-57) on the Square at Wisconsin Avenue, thus setting up a tight triangular relationship among the buildings housing local, state and national government.
The post office was designed to be impressive, establishing a substantial presence for the federal government. Working with the Post Office Department in Washington, Madison architect Stephen Vaughan Shipman chose the Second Empire style with its defining mansard roof. It was a “prestige” style popular at the time for fancy houses (some small ones, too) and grand public buildings. The post office stood here until 1929 when it moved, along with the federal courthouse, to what is now the Madison Municipal Building on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
An aerial view, postmarked 1926, shows the close proximity of the Capitol, City Hall and Post Office on the Mifflin Street side of the Square to the upper left. Together they created a kind of “government triangle.” (Image: Postcard published by E.A. Bishop; author’s collection)
This postcard view of the old post office building was mailed in 1908. (Image: Author’s collection)
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Harry Manchester’s Store
This is Manchester’s as it appeared in 1934, four years after opening. The building partly visible on the left is the Unitarian Church and on the right is the Montague Building. Both would later be purchased to expand the Manchester store. (Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society ID 16603) Click to enlarge.
When Harry Manchester looked at the old post office, he saw opportunity and bought this prime parcel for his growing business. He’d purchased a dry goods store on Pinckney Street in 1921 after working in Chicago and Philadelphia. To design his new store, Manchester looked to Chicago and hired Holabird & Root, architects known for their modern designs. Law, Law & Potter, Madison’s leading architectural firm, did the working drawings.
The new Manchester’s was designed to be attractive, drawing shoppers willing and able to spend during the Great Depression. Manchester had high compliments for the builder: “[J.H. Findorff & Son] have given Madison a structure which is a credit to the prominent location is occupies directly across from the State Capitol.”
It’s hard to disagree with Manchester’s assessment. His new department store, the largest in the city, was both urban and urbane. Well-scaled for its urban site, it was modern, inviting, and related well to the Capitol. It was also urbane, imparting elegance and sophistication.
The Historic American Buildings Survey documented the Manchester building before it was demolished in 1985. The Wisconsin Avenue façade shows the Art Deco detailing in the limestone above the windows and at the cornice. (Photo: HABS wi0166.photos.170106p)
Manchester’s flourished. Morgan Manchester, who took over after his father died in 1938, expanded the building in two directions in 1946. On Mifflin Street, Manchester’s modernized the two-story Montague Building. On Wisconsin Avenue, a three-story addition and parking replaced the neighboring Unitarian Church. Like his father, Morgan turned to Chicago for architects to design the expansion, selecting Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a firm that would rise to international prominence for its modern designs.
Manchester’s once had a pigeonhole parking unit with mechanical systems to move, store and retrieve cars, not unlike modern warehousing. It opened in 1952 and was used until about 1965. The parking structure was on Wisconsin Avenue to the rear of Manchester’s. Part of the 1946 store addition is visible on the right. (Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society ID 65885)
Manchester’s opened its first branch store in 1953 at the Madison East Shopping Center and the 1960s added stores to Westgate, State Street, and West Towne. The retail landscape was changing rapidly in 1978 when T.A. Chapman, a Milwaukee department store, purchased the Manchester stores. The flagship location on the Square closed in early 1981.
Manchester’s is prominent in the middle distance of this view of Mifflin Street from the early 1960s when the perimeter of the Square was dominated by retail. Manchester’s bought the Baron’s store in the foreground in 1964. (Image: Postcard published by L.L. Cook Co.; author’s collection)
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Manchester Place
It took several years before Manchester Place rose on the corner. Financing costs shot up in the early 1980s with the prime rate as high as 13.00 percent in 1984 (today it’s 3.25 percent). The city stepped in by issuing tax-exempt bonds and giving the developers a $2.25 million loan, a move that did not sit well with some residents.
After twists and turns, ground was broken for the nine-story building in June of 1986 and it was was occupied by October of 1987. The pre-cast concrete structure, designed by Paul Graven, has large expanses of tinted glass. From the start tenants have mostly been professional offices and other services.
Manchester Place, which opened in 1987, is the third large building to occupy the corner of Mifflin Street and Wisconsin Avenue. (Photo: Michael Bridgeman)
Manchester Place was designed to be productive, benefiting the city, the investors and tenants. An article in The Capital Times (June 6, 1987) tagged “Beauty or beast?” began: “Manchester Place may turn out to be a rousing success as an office building, but aesthetically it’s a failure for the Capitol Square.” The story detailed responses, positive and negative, from citizens, business people and architects. A few paragraphs back I wrote that Manchester’s department store was urban and urbane. Its replacement has always struck me as suburban and mundane.
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Each of the three major buildings that has stood at this location—the Old Post Office, Manchester’s, and Manchester Place—was a product of the economics, politics, aesthetics, and aspirations of its time. Places change and our expectations and responses change over time, too. I’ll be curious to see what happens in 2047, when Manchester Place will turn 60 and may make way for the fourth building on this site.
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I focus here on buildings and can’t pursue all there is to know and appreciate about Manchester’s. You’ll find a rich collection of photos at the Wisconsin Historical Society by scrolling down the home page to “Discover Our Historic Images,” selecting “Browse Here,” and searching for “Manchester’s.” The Department Store Museum has a page dedicated to Manchester’s that includes comments and memories.