Schubert Building
By Michael Bridgeman
Success Story
Our history can be near or far, measured by distance or time. For these posts, the geographic focus is Madison and surrounding communities with the time horizon ranging from pre-European settlement to today.
The Schubert Building on West Mifflin Street was designated a Madison Landmark in 2008, one hundred years after it was built for the proprietor of the Silver Dollar Saloon and Restaurant.
Photo: Michael Bridgeman
This month, I look back only a few years to 2012 when a hot topic was redevelopment of the block across from the Overture Center bounded by State, Fairchild and Mifflin Streets. Plans were advanced by the 100 Block Foundation, created by Jerome Frautschi and Pleasant Rowland, and challenged by city planners, preservationists and citizens. After debate, compromise and a revised plan, the redevelopment moved ahead and has now become a settled part of the urban landscape.
One of the survivors of the fracas was the Schubert Building at 120 W. Mifflin St., which had been designated a city landmark only a little further back in history—February 28, 2008—in an effort led by the Madison Trust.
The Schubert as built shows few changes from Ferdinand Kronenberg’s delineation of the façade. Kronenberg’s drawings for the Schubert Building have been archived and cataloged by the Dane County Historical Society and are now being digitized.
Image: Dane County Historical Society
The Schubert’s story goes back another hundred years to 1908. The two-story building was erected for Andrew Schubert and his Silver Dollar Saloon and Restaurant, which occupied the first floor. The second floor had an apartment with a bay window overlooking Mifflin Street. The Silver Dollar was a popular destination until prohibition began in Madison in 1917, a few years before the 18th Amendment outlawed the sale and distribution of alcohol nationwide beginning in 1920. Occupancy varied for the next 20 years or so until Badger Office Supplies found a home on the first floor from 1941 to 2006. A detailed history of the building can be found in the local landmark nomination.
Ferdinand Kronenberg was caricatured in Madison men of affairs "as we see 'em": a portfolio of friendly cartoons of over one hundred of the men who are conspicuous in the business, professional and political life of the city of Madison, a compilation published in 1908 by the State Journal Printing Co. The Cardinal Hotel, which opened in 1907, is seen over the architect’s left shoulder.
The Schubert Building was designed by Madison architect Ferdinand Kronenberg whose considerable portfolio includes the Cardinal Hotel (416 E. Wilson St.), Emerson School (2421 E. Johnson St.), St. James Catholic Church (1128 St. James Ct.), and the Joyce Funeral Home (540 W. Washington Ave.). Born in Germany in 1877, young “Ferd” came to Madison with his family when he was about 8 years old. He trained with local architects and had a successful 45-year career.
Stylistically the building is Queen Anne, a mode that easily incorporates eclectic elements such as the Schubert’s Flemish gable and the Tuscan pilasters on the first floor. What really catches the eye is the delightful Arts and Crafts-inspired transom window above the storefront windows.
The colored glass transom window on the Schubert’s façade is in the Arts and Crafts style with a hit of Art Nouveau. More than a century old, it is a rare survivor in a Madison commercial building.
Photo: Michael Bridgeman
The brick building was painted long ago (today it is tan) and is now part of Cento, a restaurant that also occupies the building next door. The Schubert Building is survivor and a good example of adaptive reuse, the most promising way to preserve our built heritage.
The transformation of two commercial structures into Cento Restaurant was the work of Potter Lawson, a Madison-based architectural, planning, and interior design firm. The Schubert Building (Ferdinand Kronenberg, 1908) is on the right and the Stark Real Estate Building (Philip Homer, 1926) is on the left.
Photo: Potter Lawson
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This post expands on an article I wrote for the Capitol Neighborhoods newsletter in 2016. For more on Ferdinand Kronenberg see the Winter 2007 issue of the Dane County Historical Society Newsletter.