4123 Monona Dr. Built 1888 - Current
Frank Allis, son of the founder of the Allis-Chalmers farm machinery company.
columned porch overlooking Lake Monona a 14-room two-story wooden-sided house.
It possesses many Georgian characteristics, such as dormer, fanlights, columns and decorative
pilasters. Other unique features include an open carved oak staircase and sizable ballroom on
the third floor. seven fireplaces all featuring glazed tiles surrounded by carved moldings.
Almost 600 acres, it stretched south and west along the lake to the grounds of the old
Tonyawatha Springs Hotel and spanned across presentday Monona Dr. from Frank Allis School south
to Pflaum Rd., including the Monona Golf Course area. The building at 4202 Monona Drive was
operated as a boarding house for the dozen or more farm hands by Mrs. Delbert Scott, whose
husband was the coachman and later chauffeur for Mr. Allis. It, along with the foreman's home
at 4304 Monona Dr., stands on acreage later operated as the Quaker Oats Experimental Farm.
San Damiano Friary is the Madison area home of the Capuchin Franciscans, a religious order that originated in Naples, Italy in the early 1500s.
The Franciscans’ mission is to serve the poor, sick, and underprivileged. At one time Keyes’ Springs, an artesian well considered to have medicinal
qualities, was located on the property.
