Historic Madison: The Journal of the Four Lake Region

Historic Madison, Inc. has published several issues of a Journal since 1975. We have also published an Index to the first 10 issues. Articles are historical essays with photographs by board members and other contributors.

All issues are available through the Madison Public Library System (call number: 977.583). Check availability by clicking on the LINKcat button at the bottom of this page.

Do you have an idea for an article? Please see our article submission guidelines.

 

Vol. 1, 1975

  • The Village Decade

  • August Kutzbock, Early Madison Architect

  • Prairie Homes in Madison

  • Four Lakes Notes & Anecdotes

Vol. II, 1976

  • Comin’ Down the Catfish

  • Frank Lloyd Wright and the Unitarian Meeting House

  • The Municipal Buildings of Madison: An Inventory to 1900

  • Lew F. Porter, Architect

  • Four Lakes Notes & Anecdotes

Vol. III, 1977

  • "A scene of Limitless Splendor" or Ringling's Madison

  • The Oscar Mayer Story

  • View from the Capitol (c. 1865)

  • German-Jewish and Russian-Jewish Immigration

  • Some Madison Anecdotes from Territorial Days

Vol. IV, 1978

  • California Bungalow & Its Influence in Madison

  • Rowdies in Blue: Madison as a Civil War Camp Town

  • A Railroad Changes in the 20th Century (Milwaukee Road)

  • Bethel's Finest Product: The Wisconsin State Capitol

  • Madison's Landmark Ordinance: A Personal History

  • Designated Madison Landmarks (as of May 1978)

  • Anecdotes from Madison's Early Days

Vol. V, 1979-80

  • The Madison Park System 1892-1937

  • Early Views of the Four Lakes Region

  • "The City of Madison" reprinted from Harper's Weekly 3/30/1889

  • The Bradley House, Its Construction and Reconstruction

  • The Drohman Cabin: A Part of Blooming Grove's Frontier Heritage

Vol. VI, 1980-81

  • Halle Steensland 1832-1910

  • The United States Sugar Company 1906-1924

  • William Henry Jackson Views of Madison

  • A Pioneer Industry: Stone Quarries in Madison

  • Some Recent Publications and Photo Exhibits

  • Steensland Bridge

Vol. VII, 1981-82

  • Wright's Nakoma Country Club

  • Suburban Development in Madison

  • Madison's Historic Movie Palaces

  • Two Early Drawings of Madison

  • A City Neighborhood Surrounds the James Bowen House

  • Illinois Central Railroad Reaches North to Madison

  • Book Review: Madison, A History of the Formative Year

Vol. VIII, 1982-84

  • Madison, A School for Immigrants: the 19th Century Norwegians

  • The Fight Against Tuberculosis at Morningside Sanatorium

  • The Curtiss Family: Pioneer Madison Photographers

  • Bicycles: Boom and Bust: A Short-Lived Madison Factory

  • Walter E. Scott (1911-1983), Friend & Preservationist

Vol. IX, 1985-86

  • Darwin Clark: A Yankee Entrepreneur

  • The Madison Turners and the German Immigrant Community

  • N.P. Jones, an Early Madison Photographer

  • Growth of a Public School System:Madison 1835-1880

Vol. X, 1990

  • Developing a Preservation Ethic: Alexius Baas

  • Madison's First Big Bell

  • Lacustrine Circumambulation: A Walk Round Lake Mendota Revisited

  • The Women's Club Movement in Madison & Public Health Concerns

Vol. XI, 1993

  • Forest Hill: Madison's Rural Cemetery, 1857-1878

  • Collecting Madisoniana - Postcard Views of the Capitol Square

  • Madison's Outdoor Markets

  • The Madison Institute: Intellectual Life & the Lyceum Movement

Vol. XII, 1995

  • Maple Bluff: Madison's Beautiful North Shore Suburb

  • The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association and the Problems

  • of Progressive Landscape Design in University Heights

  • Lindbergh and Madison

  • Eagle Heights

  • Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association Centennial Celebration

  • Nolen in the '90's: A Symposium on Why John Nolen is Important Today

  • The Realism of Visionary Planning: Nolen's Comprehensive Plan for

  • Madison, Wisconsin, 1907-1911

  • Nolen Conference: Suggested Readings

Vol. XIII, 1996

  • Monona's Historic Heritage

  • Charles E. Brown and the Indian Mounds of Madison

  • Randall School at Ninety Years

  • Woman's Club of Madison

  • William Kaeser's Fifty Year Plan for Madison

  • Madison Ilustrated: Portrait of a City in Transition, 1930-1949

  • Reminiscences from an Exhibit at the State Historical Museum

Vol. XIV, 1997

  • A Taliesin Apprentice: The Architectural Career of Herbert Fritz, Jr.

  • Crestwood: A Pioneer Cooperative Housing Project

  • The Old Governor's Executive Residence

  • The Early Years at East High School

  • A Civil War Hero: The Story of Theodore Read

  • Historic Madison, Inc. Celebrates the Thornton Wilder Centennial

  • Thornton Wilder: Madison and Beyond

  • Madison in the 1860's: Rare Photographs of John S. Fuller

Vol. XV, 1998, Special Sesquicentennial Issue

  • Madison: A Capital Idea

  • How Madison Became Wisconsin's Capital

  • A Place on the Isthmus: The Planning of Madison and its Capitol Park During the Nineteenth Century

  • How My Grandfather, Lew Porter, Built the Wisconsin Capitol

  • The Capitol and Urban Planning in Madison: 1900-1959

  • Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Wisconsin State Capitol

  • Madison and Politics: A Forum

Vol. XVI, 1999

  • A Landscape of Ideas: The Early Evolution of the University of Wisconsin - Madison Campus, 1849 to 1908

  • Henry Mall: Development of the "Lesser Mall" as Proposed in the 1908 Campus Plan

  • The McVicar-Stein and Wollin Photographic Collections of Madison, Wisconsin

  • The Little Dutch Mill Restaurant, 1929 - 1958

Vol. XVII, 2000-2001

  • A Conversation with Helen Kayser, oral history interview

  • The Early History of Historic Preservation and Historical Societies in Madison

  • Where is Madison in Madison?

  • How Are You? I'm Fine. Postcard correspondence

  • James Reeve Stuart, Madison artist and portrait painter

Vol. XVIII, 2002-2003

  • A Conversation with Betty MacDonald

  • A Conversation with John McGrath

  • A Conversation with Rev. James Wright

  • Erdman Homes in Madison

  • Storage for a Century Plus: Trachte Buildings

Vol. XIX, 2004

  • A Conversation with Anna Mae Davis

  • A Conversation with William Bradford Smith

  • A Conversation with Beatrice Walker Lampert

  • All for the Glory: ice boating in Madison

  • A Tale of Two Cords: A FllW Car Crash

Vol. XX, 2005

  • Madison Becomes a City

  • Gordon Sinykin

  • Kehl: First Family of Dance

  • Leaving Greenbush

  • Madison Sketches

Vol. XXI, 2008

  • Stephen Vaughn Shipman's Civil War

  • A Soldier Remembers

  • Madison's Early Concert Venues

  • Madison's Lunch Wagons and Diners

  • Paul Soglin: the Early Years

  • Stamps

Vol. XXII, 2009-2010

  • Fishing Lures

  • Doxey Rooming House

  • Preparing for Civil War

  • The Persistence of History

  • Lunatic Asylum

  • Postal History

  • Henry Vilas Zoo

Vol. XXIII, 2011-2014

  • Madison's Women and the Civil War

  • Winifred Ford's Watercolors

  • Hoyt Park

  • Elroy Smith's Madison Photographs 1900-1901

  • Frank J. Hess Buildings at Schenk's Corners

Vol. XXIV, 2015-2019

  • Stressed Skin Houses

  • A South Madison Family

  • Reflections on the Great War

  • In Memoriam

  • Flora and Fauna Frozen in Time

  • Mark Ingraham