Madison Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  Wisconsin State Capitol

  Notice the Wisconsin State Capitol rising above you, home to the Legislature, Supreme Court, and Governor's office in Madison. Completed in 1917, this is the fifth building to serve as the Wisconsin capitol since the first territorial legislature convened in 1836 and the third since Wisconsin was granted statehood in 1848.

• 
  Overture Center for the Arts

  The Overture Center for the Arts anchors this block of State Street. This is Madison’s major performing arts center and art gallery, a building that opened on September 19, 2004 and replaced the former Civic Center that once sat on this very block of State Street.

• 
  Monona Terrace

  Frank Lloyd Wright first proposed a building for this Lake Monona shore in 1938; Monona Terrace finally opened in 1997. This place began as a bold idea in 1938, proposed by famed architect and Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright.

• 
  Lake Monona

  Lake Monona forms the isthmus's south shore. It is a freshwater drainage lake in Dane County, surrounded on three sides by the city of Madison and on the southeast by the city of Monona, and it forms the south shore of the isthmus that creates downtown Madison.

• 
  Camp Randall

  Camp Randall in Madison was the largest staging point for Wisconsin troops entering the American Civil War. Here fresh volunteers received quick training before heading off to join the Union Army; the grounds also housed a hospital and, briefly, a prisoner-of-war camp for captured Confederate soldiers.

All 30 stops

• Wisconsin State Capitol (Madison Isthmus)

  Notice the Wisconsin State Capitol rising above you, home to the Legislature, Supreme Court, and Governor's office in Madison.

• Dane County Farmers' Market (Capitol Square)

  Every Saturday morning from April to November, you find the Dane County Farmers' Market filling Capitol Square.

• Wisconsin Veterans Museum (Capitol Square)

  Two galleries inside the Wisconsin Veterans Museum on Capitol Square in Madison await you.

• Gates of Heaven Synagogue (Madison)

  Picture German immigrant architect August Kutzbock designing this synagogue in 1863 for seventeen Jewish families who worshiped and built community here.

• Overture Center for the Arts (State Street)

  The Overture Center for the Arts anchors this block of State Street.

• Orpheum Theatre (downtown Madison)

  One block from the Wisconsin State Capitol, the Orpheum Theater began in the 1920s as a movie palace and still stages live performance.

• Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Downtown Madison)

  Downtown Madison, Wisconsin keeps its independent, non-profit art museum right here: the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

• State Street (downtown Madison)

  State Street runs as a pedestrian zone from the Capitol down to the University of Wisconsin–Madison at Library Mall.

• University Presbyterian Church and Student Center (State Street)

  Pres House is the nickname for this University Presbyterian Church and Student Center on State Street in Madison.

• Bascom Hill (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Bascom Hill forms the historic core of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, its quadrangle facing the State Capitol at the far end of State Street.

• North Hall (Bascom Hill)

  North Hall was the university's first building.

• University of Wisconsin Science Hall (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Bright red rhyolite skins University of Wisconsin Science Hall, built in 1888.

• Chamberlin Hall (Main Campus)

  Physics fills Chamberlin Hall today on the University of Wisconsin–Madison main campus here in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Washburn Observatory (University of Wisconsin–Madison campus)

  At 1401 Observatory Drive you reach the Washburn Observatory, completed in 1881 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.

• Observatory Hill Mound Group (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Under your feet on Observatory Hill, two effigy mounds survive on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

• Elvehjem Museum of Art (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Chazen Museum of Art faces you here as a brutalist block on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

• Memorial Union (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Memorial Union rose here in 1926 on Lake Mendota's south shore, an Italianate Renaissance Revival–style complex at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

• Wisconsin Union Theater (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  Inside Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin–Madison sits the Wisconsin Union Theater.

• The Edgewater (Mansion Hill)

  Lake Mendota laps the shore at the Edgewater Hotel, close to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the State Capitol.

• Bernard-Hoover Boathouse (James Madison Park)

  Built in 1915 on Lake Mendota's shore, the Bernard-Hoover Boathouse still survives in James Madison Park.

• James Madison Park (Lake Mendota)

  James Madison Park spreads 12.63 waterfront acres along Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Henry Vilas Zoo (Madison)

  Dane County owns these 28 acres of the Henry Vilas Zoo, accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

• Camp Randall Memorial Arch (Camp Randall)

  Lew F. Porter, a Madison-based architect, designed this Camp Randall Memorial Arch, and the Woodbury Granite Company manufactured it.

• Camp Randall (University of Wisconsin campus)

  Camp Randall in Madison was the largest staging point for Wisconsin troops entering the American Civil War.

• Stock Pavilion (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  An exhibit hall styled like a medieval housebarn, the Stock Pavilion opened in 1908 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

• Machinery Row (Williamson Street)

  Machinery Row runs a half mile east of the capitol, a long brick commercial block in Madison.

• Tenney Park – Yahara River Parkway (Isthmus)

  Developed from 1900 to 1911 along the Yahara River, Tenney Park and its parkway lead toward Lake Mendota.

• Monona Terrace (Lake Monona)

  Frank Lloyd Wright first proposed a building for this Lake Monona shore in 1938; Monona Terrace finally opened in 1997.

• Lake Monona (Downtown Madison)

  Lake Monona forms the isthmus's south shore.

• Orton Park (Orton Park Historic District)

  Orton Park occupies 1100 Spaight Street, Madison's first public park.

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