Advocacy and education are key to the Madison Trust’s future
By Peggy Nolan
As the Madison Trust celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we’re featuring the people who helped make the Trust what it is today. Kurt Stege not only lives in a notable home that’s part of the Madison Trust’s Maple Bluff walking tour, he’s also served as Madison Trust President and in many roles on the Madison Trust’s Board and committees. Kurt is currently the co-chair of the Madison Trust’s Advocacy Committee with Bob Klebba.
How did you get interested in historic preservation?
Kurt Stege
Before I was born, my parents lived on the west side of Madison. They moved to a home on Cambridge Road in Maple Bluff in the early 1950s, when my mother was expecting me. The home was built around 1916 and designed by Alvan Small. Small was a Prairie-style architect who at one point worked with Louis Sullivan in Chicago. Before my family moved in, an earlier owner of the house had Frank Riley do some interior renovation work. Riley had designed many homes in the area.
I grew up in that house, which is now part of the Madison Trust’s Maple Bluff walking tour. My wife and I lived in Nakoma for 21 years and then moved back into the Maple Bluff house in 2000, after my mother moved to a retirement community. We had to get approval from the Village of Maple Bluff Building Board for constructing an addition before we moved in. The experience before the Building Board made me more sensitive to proposals to modify some Frank Riley-designed homes nearby in ways that were inconsistent with Riley’s highly developed sense of proportion, balance and detail. Testifying before the Building Board regarding various proposals is really when I got my toes wet in historic preservation advocacy.
How did you get involved with the Madison Trust?
My initial contact with the Madison Trust was attending awards events. Also, my mother made a financial gift to the Madison Trust because of her love of Madison. She and her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents lived much of their lives here. My mother was an art major in college, and that sensitivity of hers, coupled with her family’s historic connections, meant she cared about how Madison developed and how it looked. She passed those sentiments on to me.
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Through foresight and a lot of work, the Madison Trust received a matching grant to hire its first employee, Executive Director Jason Tish, from 2009 to 2014. Jason effectively addressed many advocacy issues that arose during this period. However, the Madison Trust couldn’t handle the financial commitment to maintain the position. Around the same time, the Madison Trust implemented term limits for its Trustees. Consequently, when then-President Vicki Siekert invited me to join the Board in 2015, the Madison Trust was in a period of transition. I had recently retired and had a lot to learn. I found good friends on the Board, elsewhere in the Madison Trust and in the field of historic preservation. After serving as Treasurer, I was poised to become President in May 2017, but illness prevented me from beginning in that position until nearly the end of that year. I served as President until May 2021.
Some steps that were taken during my years as president include:
Expanding the number of committees and strengthening them. This was instrumental in moving many of the organization’s ongoing responsibilities off the shoulders of the Trustees. It spread the workload and now provides more options for our volunteers, many of whom serve in response to specific recruitment efforts.
Filing a controversial local landmark nomination for the Gay (Churchill) Building on the Square, which had the effect of interfering with demolition plans related to the construction of a new Historical Society Museum. The State Historical Society’s project has more recently morphed to a smaller footprint and an architectural design that I hope is highly regarded by a very wide audience. The Gay Building survives.
Testifying in front of state legislative committees, which established contacts with staff at other historic preservation groups in Wisconsin.
Hiring Jennifer Gurske part-time in 2018, initially to manage certain office-related functions. Jenn’s responsibilities have gradually expanded to be characterized by the general category of Program Director. We were very fortunate to find someone with her abilities, interests and attitude.
Starting the Madison Trust’s advocacy blog.
Resolving a legal issue with the Madison Trust’s tax-exempt status.
When my term as President ended, I continued serving as co-chair of the Advocacy Committee. I’m also a docent for the Maple Bluff tour.
As the Madison Trust celebrates its 50th anniversary, what role do you think the Madison Trust should play in Madison’s future?
It’s clear that the Madison Trust has constant work ahead in advocacy. The Madison Trust needs to be heard and listened to as a strong, united voice in planning Madison’s future. Our challenge is to be both timely and unified, despite an organizational structure that makes spontaneity difficult. Within our membership, there will be differing individual thoughts about our most important tasks. Different ideas and concerns will always be present. My hope is that we can maintain the strong support of the large majority of our membership to carry out the most important preservation efforts regarding the various issues that confront us.
Another key area is education. The Tour Committee is already an important effort in this area in the summer, as are the programs the Madison Trust offers at other times during the year. It would be wonderful if we could offer a speaker who would go into the Madison public schools and get students excited about Madison architecture and history. It might not be easy to incorporate into the curriculum. However, it would create a sense of belonging and appreciation that would help society in general. One of the things I really like about the recognition of First Nations is how it emphasizes multiple generations and multiple millennia, and how important it is to have that far longer scale of time rather than focusing on just the next day, week, month, year or even 20 years.
Throughout my involvement with the Madison Trust, I’ve worked with interesting people who are very capable and thoughtful. There are many, many people I appreciate who have been involved with the Madison Trust and offered their help. They all warrant specific mention, an option fraught with the error of inadvertent omission. We are indebted to all of our Trustees, our leadership, our volunteers (both visible and behind the scenes), our Program Director, and all those who care about the historic character of Madison.
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Periodically in this space, we’ll feature local historic preservation heroes. We all have a role to play in keeping Madison’s history alive. What’s yours? Submit suggestions for others we should feature here.