Castles
By Michael Bridgeman
Walker Castle in 1890
The Walker Castle
One upon a time, a castle stood on East Gorham Street. It was built by Benjamin Walker who had come to Madison with his family in 1861 and who, as the story is told, longed for a home that connected him to his native England. So he erected a stone house complete with towers, battlements, and Gothic doorways, “all the accouterments of a real medieval castle, except the moat and drawbridge,” as Adelin Hohlfeld wrote in the Wisconsin State Journal in 1933.
According to Hohlfeld, the Walkers moved into their castle in 1863 and three years later they sold it and returned to England. It stood until 1893 when it was demolished and some materials were re-used for the Frank Brown Rental House at 137 E. Gorham St. (Mansion Hill East Tour).
The Lucius and Marion Fay House
Castle Place gets its name from Walker’s castle, which stood in the 900 block of Gorham Street on land now occupied by Christ Presbyterian Church and its parking lot. The short street is featured in the Madison Trust’s 2022 Specialty Tour this August of Prospect and Castle Places. The one-day-only tour has no castles, but does include Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, Craftsman, and Prairie houses. There’s even a touch of Georgian Revival with the Fay House (1901), designed by Louis Claude and Edward Starck before they embraced more progressive styles. Tickets for the August 28 tour will go on sale beginning July 15.
Castle as Home
The adage that “a man’s home is his castle” has served as an inspiration for some homebuilders. I know of two examples in our area and there may be others. Julius and Lisette Buro built their “castle” at 301 Jackson St. in Sauk City in 1911 using concrete blocks, an innovative and popular technology around the turn of the twentieth century. Apart from a 1976 addition, the house still looks much as it did when built, complete with crenellation, the battlements at the top of the exterior walls with their alternating solid parts (merlons) and voids (crenels).
Buro House in Sauk City
A second domestic castle hugs the shore of Lake Kegonsa in the Town of Dunn. I became aware of it through postcard images like the one below which is postmarked 1915. I’ve not been able to determine the construction date nor the original owners. The house still stands, though it has been considerably altered, and while the towers are identifiable, the castle-defining crenellation is now gone. I’ve not seen the house in person and owe what I have learned to friends and contacts who boat the Four Lakes of Dane County.
Castle at Lake Kegonsa , circa 1915
Castle at Lake Kegonsa, 2022
Castellation
Short of erecting full-scale castles, some homeowners have castellated details on their houses. Architect James Law included a crenellated parapet above the entry to the William F. Winterble House (1930) at 2131 Van Hise Ave. It’s a Tudor Revival design, the kind of house where one is most likely to see castle-like features. A more recent example of Tudor Revival, the house at 1102 Woodland Way (1978), has a conspicuous battlement over its garage.
2131 Van Hise Ave.
1102 Woodland Way
The Collegiate Gothic style was popular in the early twentieth century, particularly for educational buildings, from colleges to grade schools. The best example locally is Madison East High School (1922) at 2222 E. Washington Ave., designed by Frank Riley. It has a massive central tower topped by small onion-like domes, stone tracery, and discrete notches (crenels) in its parapet. Other crenellated school buildings in Madison include Longfellow School (1918) at 210 S. Brooks St., Dudgeon School (1927) at 3200 Monroe St., and Madison Vocational School (1908) at 211 N. Carroll St. Collegiate Gothic finds its way into non-school buildings, too, such as the three-story Max Wahl Apartments (1922) at 145 W. Gilman St., with its battlemented parapet and decorative stone panels set into the brick walls.
Madison East High School
Wahl Apartments
Commercial Castellation
Perhaps the most whimsical crenellated building in our area is Castle Rock (1941) at 6418 University Ave. in Middleton. The undated postcard shows the original fieldstone-faced building with its pair of round towers capped by battlements. The flip side of the card gives these particulars: “CASTLE ROCK” Popular beer and food spot. 3-1/2 miles from Madison. LAKE VIEW MOTEL ADJOINING… The building and its additions are now apartments. Less idiosyncratic, but nearly as conspicuous, is Machinery Row (1898-1955) at 601-627 Williamson St. Credited to architect Lew Porter and built in phases over several years, the commercial block’s substantial presence is enhanced by the crenellated tower in the foreground and the capped turret to the east.
Castle Rock postcard
Machinery Row
Castle as Fortress
One of the dictionary synonyms for castle is “fortress.” Two buildings in Madison—one religious and the other secular—manifest the idea of fortress through details inspired by castles. The religious fortress is the Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel and Student Center at 220 W. Gilman St. with two square towers, both with emphatically crenellated parapets. To make the symbolism perfectly clear, the stone panel above the archway on the right reads, “a mighty fortress is our God,” the title of one of Martin Luther’s best-known hymns.
The most fortress-like building in Madison is the University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium (1894) at 716 Langdon St., generally known as the Red Gym. It was built for both military drills and gymnastic exercises, though its large internal spaces also accommodated banquets, dances, and political assemblies. Conover and Porter designed a massive building whose volume alone communicates strength. The stepped gables, turrets, towers, and crenellated battlements further emphasize the rock-solid presence of the Red Gym. Today it is home to the Morgridge Center for Public Service, Multicultural Student Center, International Student Services, and other groups. It remains our grandest castle.
Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel
UW Armory and Gymnasium
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Image Credits
Walker Castle in 1890 – Wisconsin Historical Society Image ID 52034; used by permission
The Lucius and Marion Fay House – Photo by Vicki Siekert
Castle at Lake Kegonsa , circa 1915 – Postcard; author’s collection
Castle at Lake Kegonsa, 2022 – Photo by Henri Dutilly
Madison East High School -- WHS Architecture & History Index #103453
Castle Rock –Postcard (undated) published by Roger C. Bonjour, Rockford, Ill.; author’s collection
All other photos by Michael Bridgeman
Special thanks to Don Sanford, author of On Fourth Lake: A Social History of Lake Mendota. Commodore Press LLC, 2015.