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Bascom Hill
Bascom Hill is the iconic main quadrangle that forms the historic core of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. It is located on the opposite end of State Street from the Wisconsin State Capitol, and is named after John Bascom, former president of the University of Wisconsin.
The hill is crowned by Bascom Hall, the main administration building for the campus. Near the main entrance to Bascom Hall sits a statue of President Abraham Lincoln. The first university building, North Hall, was constructed on Bascom Hill in 1851 and is still in use by the Department of Political Science. The second building, South Hall, was built in 1855 and is now used by the administration of the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science.
In 1974 the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bascom Hill Historic District. In addition to the main quadrangle, the district includes historic buildings ranging from the Red Gym to the Wisconsin Historical Society building to the Carillon Tower. The NRHP nomination considers the district "the most historic cluster of institutional buildings in Wisconsin."
Prior to white settlement around 1837, the area that would become Madison was quiet woods and savannahs, swamps and lakes. Woodland people built effigy mounds like the water spirit mound near Washburn Observatory, and their probable descendants the Ho-Chunk called the place Ta-ko-per-ah, meaning "land of the four lakes."
On the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona were two hills, drumlins formed about 18,000 years ago by the last glacier. When Madison was selected as Wisconsin Territory's capital in 1836, the top of the eastern hill was reserved for the territorial capitol building, and the state capitol stands there today. The other hill a mile to the west came to be called optimistically "College Hill" around 1838, years before there was any college.
The young city had a cemetery on the hill from 1837 to about 1846, just near where the Lincoln statue now sits. A William Nelson who died of typhoid in 1837 was buried there, the first white man to die in Madison. Most or all burials there have since been relocated.
The location of Wisconsin's capital had been contentious, and the lead promoter of Madison, Judge James Doty, had gained allies and secured their ongoing motivation by selling them wild parcels around the proposed city. One of those parcels was 160 acres on Bascom Hill which was sold to New York Congressman Aaron Vanderpoel in 1838 for $1.25 an acre. In 1848 when the new State of Wisconsin created the university, the state bought the land from Vanderpoel for $15 an acre.
A general plan for the physical university was in place by 1850, with a "Main Edifice" sketched in where Bascom Hall now sits at the top of the hill and a broad open space running east down the hill toward the capitol, with a "North Dorm" and a "South Dorm" on each side and two similar dorms drawn below. That general configuration was apparently laid out by Milwaukee architect John F. Rague, and major elements remain to this day.
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Bascom Hill
Bascom Hill is the iconic main quadrangle that forms the historic core of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. It is located on the opposite end of State Street from the Wisconsin State Capitol, and is named after John Bascom, former president of the University of Wisconsin.
The hill is crowned by Bascom Hall, the main administration building for the campus. Near the main entrance to Bascom Hall sits a statue of President Abraham Lincoln. The first university building, North Hall, was constructed on Bascom Hill in 1851 and is still in use by the Department of Political Science. The second building, South Hall, was built in 1855 and is now used by the administration of the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science.
In 1974 the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bascom Hill Historic District. In addition to the main quadrangle, the district includes historic buildings ranging from the Red Gym to the Wisconsin Historical Society building to the Carillon Tower. The NRHP nomination considers the district "the most historic cluster of institutional buildings in Wisconsin."
Prior to white settlement around 1837, the area that would become Madison was quiet woods and savannahs, swamps and lakes. Woodland people built effigy mounds like the water spirit mound near Washburn Observatory, and their probable descendants the Ho-Chunk called the place Ta-ko-per-ah, meaning "land of the four lakes."
On the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona were two hills, drumlins formed about 18,000 years ago by the last glacier. When Madison was selected as Wisconsin Territory's capital in 1836, the top of the eastern hill was reserved for the territorial capitol building, and the state capitol stands there today. The other hill a mile to the west came to be called optimistically "College Hill" around 1838, years before there was any college.
The young city had a cemetery on the hill from 1837 to about 1846, just near where the Lincoln statue now sits. A William Nelson who died of typhoid in 1837 was buried there, the first white man to die in Madison. Most or all burials there have since been relocated.
The location of Wisconsin's capital had been contentious, and the lead promoter of Madison, Judge James Doty, had gained allies and secured their ongoing motivation by selling them wild parcels around the proposed city. One of those parcels was 160 acres on Bascom Hill which was sold to New York Congressman Aaron Vanderpoel in 1838 for $1.25 an acre. In 1848 when the new State of Wisconsin created the university, the state bought the land from Vanderpoel for $15 an acre.
A general plan for the physical university was in place by 1850, with a "Main Edifice" sketched in where Bascom Hall now sits at the top of the hill and a broad open space running east down the hill toward the capitol, with a "North Dorm" and a "South Dorm" on each side and two similar dorms drawn below. That general configuration was apparently laid out by Milwaukee architect John F. Rague, and major elements remain to this day.
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