Simeon Mills Historic District

About this property

The Simeon Mills Historic District is a group of seven historic commercial buildings two blocks west of the capitol square in Madison, Wisconsin, constructed from around 1845 to 1887. In 1987 the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places - considered significant for its concentration of 19th century commercial buildings, which is unique in Madison. The city of Madison began in 1836 when the territorial legislature chose it as the territorial capitol. Work soon began on the capitol building, and Eben and Rosaline Peck built a log inn to house new arrivals, just a block north of what is now the Mills Historic District. They were the first permanent settlers in Madison. In June of 1837, Ohio native Simeon Mills walked up from Chicago. Seeing promise in the busy new clearing between lakes and forests, he hired someone to build him a log store and saloon south of the Pecks' inn, at what would become 121-123 E. Main Street, where the Argus-Heilman building now stands. This was the first store in Madison, and perhaps the first store between Milwaukee and Dodgeville. Mills acquired the contract to run Madison's first post office from that store, and carried Madison's mail to and from Milwaukee once a week. By the following year, the town had grown to 24 buildings, on a "stump-strewn hillside centered along King Street." The buildings included two stores, two saloons, three hotels, and the under-construction Capitol. King Street places the modern historic district squarely in that early business district. In 1846 when Madison incorporated as a village, the town was still clustered around King Street (still full of stumps), but it was expanding to East Main Street and South Pinckney. Mills helped start a pioneer newspaper the Wisconsin Argus, and around 1847 he and associates built a brick structure on the same block with his log store, with the Argus office on the first floor and halls for a Masonic lodge and an Odd Fellows lodge on the second floor. Though remodeled in 1892, this is the oldest surviving building in Madison. The business district continued to grow in fits and spurts through economic downturns and the Civil War. Simeon Mills built more commercial buildings in what would become the district, as did others. Mills was a respected civil servant, serving as Clerk of the territorial supreme court, treasurer of Wisconsin Territory, a member of the Wisconsin State Senate, and Wisconsin's paymaster during the Civil War. He was also a key figure in establishing what would become the University of Wisconsin–Madison. By the 1960s and 1970s the block that would become the Mills district had a shady reputation. Since then, some of the old Mills block has been rehabilitated. A larger area containing the Simeon Mills district was determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s, but some of the owners opposed the listing. The owners of the Mills block itself were more agreeable and the district was listed on the NRHP in 1987 and on the State Register of Historic Places in 1989.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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