Madison, Wisconsin Real Estate
Madison: The City of Four Lakes

View Community Knowledge Bank | View Madison Area MLS Properties

A little more than an hour's drive from Milwaukee, Madison, Wisconsin is the second largest city in the state, the state's capitol, and the county seat of Dane County. The Greater Madison Area, also home to the University of Wisconsin, is often described as The City of Four Lakes, comprised of Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Wingra and Lake Waubesa. The downtown is located on an isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona, but the city has long since expanded far beyond. The lakes are connected via the Yahara River to Lake Kegonsa. Eventually the Yahara flows into the Rock River and beyond to the Mississippi River.

In May of 1829, territorial Judge and land speculator James Duane Doty, enthralled by the natural beauty of the area, purchased 1200 acres of land from the federal government for $1.25 an acre. Within seven years, President Andrew Jackson created the territory of Wisconsin and six months later Wisconsin’s first governor, Henry Dodge, convened the first Legislature in Belmont to discuss the site of the territorial capital. Though several settlements vied for the honor of becoming the capital city, the territorial legislature voted in favor of choosing Madison for its capital largely because of its location halfway between the new and growing cities around Milwaukee in the east and the long established strategic post of Prairie du Chien in the west, as well as because of its location between the highly populated lead mining regions in the southwest and Wisconsin's oldest city, Green Bay in the northeast. Being named for a much-admired founding father who had just passed away, and having streets named after every founding father, also helped attract votes.

During the American Civil War, Madison served as a center of the Union Army in Wisconsin. The intersection of Milwaukee, East Washington, Winnebego, and North Streets are known as Union Corners, as a tavern located there was the last stop for Union soldiers before heading to fight the Conferderates. Camp Randall was built and was used as a training camp, a military hospital, and a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers. After the war ended, Camp Randall was absorbed into the grounds of the University of Wisconsin. Camp Randall Stadium was built over the site in 1917. The original capitol burned in 1904 and construction on the current capitol building began in 1906.

Home to the likes of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, playwrights Thornton Wilder and Tina Howe, Olympic skaters Eric and Beth Heiden, novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard, Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction writers Deborah Blum and David Maraniss and actors Joan Cusack, Tyne Daly, Bradley Whitford, Chris Noth, and Chris Farley. Movie producers Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker are Wisconsin natives who began their careers in Madison.

Madison prides itself on being nationally recognized as an ideal place to live, work and play. In 1996 Money magazine identified Madison as the best place to live in the United States. It has consistently ranked near the top of the best-places list in subsequent years, with the city's low unemployment rate a major contributor. Madison has constantly been rated one of the top 10 best cities to live in, almost every year and was celebrated by Sports Illustrated magazine in 2003 as the "Best College Sports Town" in America. And in 2004, Forbes Magazine ranked "Madison No. 1 in Nation for Business and Careers". The ranking looked at criteria including: education of the work force, percentage of the population with college degrees, low unemployment and crime rates, cost of housing and income and job growth.