Madison, WI Surrounded by Reality

Areas & Neighborhoods Grouping of houses, businesses and other landmarks for the Madison area broken down into geographical chunks.

Some are actual neighborhoods or historic districts, but their true borders may not be followed to the letter so all items could be fit in without having to create too many groups. Others groupings are just made up, like Central Park. This name is given to the general area where a proposed “Central Park would be located.

There is an emphasis on older historic structures which is why there is a great disparity in size of the areas. For example the far west and south side are grouped together as one while the smaller uptown area is divided into several groupings.
Business & Industry All items listed here are (or should be) listed in Areas & Neighborhoods, but if you don’t know where it was located but remember it’s name or what kind of business it was this might be a better why to look for it.

Private businesses only. Currently the groups are: Adult, Banks, Bars, Bowling, Breweries, Cars, Colleges, Food Industry, Funeral, Groceries, Hotels, Industry/Manufacturing, Newspapers, Restaurants, Retail, Theatres, Transportation & Miscellaneous.
City, County & State RunAnything owned or run by the government. In some cases non-government businesses were included rather than break the same type of business up into to groups. For example private schools were included with the City of Madison run public schools.

City services like Libraries, Parks, Police, Fire & Water. County, State and Federal are also here if they were located in the Madison area.
Dates, Events & ListsWant information or maybe just trivia about Madison? Interested in Unsolved Crimes and some interesting Solved Crimes? Major Fires? How about what places are supposed to be haunted?

Books written about Madison, Movies About Madison or Filmed in Madison. Who is that _____ named for?

Unusual events in the Did You Know & Do You Remember sections.

Also: By The Numbers, Halloween In Madison, Have You Seen This, Historic Event Dates, Madison TV & Radio, Magazines, Music From Madison, Sports Madison Style & Vietnam Era Unrest.
History LinksLinks to the best sites about Madison’s History.
MadisoniansThe people who made it all happen. Architects, Mayors, Governors, The Most Influential, Famous Visitors & Residents, Clubs & Organizations, Police Chiefs & Women.
Miscellaneous If something didn’t seem to fit into another category it ended up here, Business Blocks, Carriage Houses, Cemeteries, Churches, Hospitals, How Madison Was Shaped, Lakes & Rivers, Steamboats, Streets, The Dividing Ridge & Law Park Landfill.
Site Map
State Capitols in MadisonInformation on Madison’s three capitols. (The first Wisconsin Capitol was located in Belmont, WI) Do you know how Madison was chosen as the capital of Wisconsin and the controversy of dirty deals that surrounded it? Did you know that there were many attempts over the first 100 years to move the state government to Milwaukee?

The first Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison – “Doty’s washbowl”

The Second Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison – Collapse during construction kills 6 and injures 22 in 1893. Major fire destroys most of it in 1904.

The Current Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison – Construction took 11 years.
University of WisconsinThe beginning, it’s buildings, traditions, people.

Official City Flag

What is it? All about Madison or a connection with Madison.

Mostly History. But then isn't everything before today history?

A lot of Facts. Hopefully accurate though we make no guarantees.

Some strange stuff we hope you will find interesting.

This Site is and always will be a work in progress.
Some pages are just part of the skeleton with no real information yet.
Have Ideas or information to add? Send it to us.

What does "XX square miles surrounded by reality" Mean?
A quote by Wisconsin Republican governor Lee S. Dreyfus while campaigning in 1978. "Madison is XX square miles surrounded by reality" Not exactly sure what the XX was when Dreyfus said it. It's changed over the years of course, but even when quoting Dreyfus it's listed differently... 30, 35, 52... It's currently about 76 square miles.

More...