Dudgeon-Monroe Timeline
(The First Thousand or So Years)

ca. 850-1150 Late Woodland peoples grow corn and construct conical, linear, and effigy mounds on higher ground adjacent to Lake Wingra and its surrounding marshes and springs.

prior to 1837 The Ho-Chunk continue corn cultivation near Lake Wingra and create an oak savanna by using prairie fires to clear brush for hunting.

1836-37 The Wisconsin Territory is organized, and after the future Madison is chosen as the capital, the first European settlers reach its site via a road retracing a Native American trail that passes just to the north of Lake Wingra. The territorial legislature later designates that route, linking Green Bay, Madison, and Monroe, a territorial road.

1848 Wisconsin becomes a state.

1850s A brick inn is constructed by a spring on the Monroe Road near the western end of Lake Wingra. Frederick Paunack opens a quarry north of the inn, then uses sandstone from the quarry to expand the building later known as the Plough Inn.

1855 John Ashmead purchases a 55-acre tract between the Monroe Road and Lake Wingra and brings George and Samuel Chase from Philadelphia to build a mansion called Villa Edgewood.

1857 New owner Samuel Marshall completes Villa Edgewood and adds a carriage house and servants' quarters to the estate in 1864.

1858 The City of Madison opens the park-like Forest Hill cemetery on an elevation overlooking both Lake Wingra and Lake Mendota well outside the city limits.

1861-65 During the Civil War the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, a mile and a half west of Madison on the Monroe Road, becomes Camp Randall, training some 70,000 Union soldiers and housing 1500 Confederate prisoners of war.

1873 Governor Cadwallader Washburn purchases Villa Edgewood for his summer home and "gentleman's farm".
Samuel and Helen Larkin Chase build their own home by Lake Wingra west of Edgewood on land given them by her parents.

ca. 1875 A brick residence is built on the Marston Farm, just east of the Plough Inn.

1881 Former Governor Washburn donates his Edgewood estate to the Dominican Sisters for educational purposes.

1887 A rail line from Madison to Freeport, Illinois, which becomes part of the Illinois Central, is sited to the north of the Monroe Road.

1893 Three pupils at the Edgewood Academy of the Sacred Heart perish in a fire that destroys Villa Edgewood.

1894 The four-story Sacred Heart Academy building replaces Villa Edgewood.

1894-95 A spur line is run from the Illinois Central tracks to Lake Wingra, where the Knickerbocker Ice Company of Chicago builds a three-story ice house.

1897 Electric streetcar service is extended by Camp Randall along Breese Terrace to a portion of the Monroe Road (now renamed Monroe Street) then to Harrison Street and out Regent Street as far as Forest Hill Cemetery.

1903 The sale of lots in the West Lawn plat begins, and that development is annexed to Madison as part of a new Tenth Ward.

1904 The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association creates Edgewood Drive between the Edgewood campus and Lake Wingra.

1905 Architect Alvan Small designs the prairie-style Randall School, at Spooner and Regent Streets, to serve the new Tenth Ward.

1909 Madison's first gasoline filling station is built at Spooner and Monroe Streets.

1912 Leonard Gay purchases the Marston farm and begins development of the Wingra Plat bordered roughly by the ice house, Plough Inn, and rail line.

1914 Westminster Presbyterian Church is constructed at the Spooner Street entry to West Lawn.

1915 Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church just east of Spooner Street on Roberts Court. Randall Bank is established on Monroe Street.

1918 Monroe Street becomes part of state highways 19 and 31. The Illinois Central provides a passenger stop near the intersection of Monroe and Regent Streets.

1919 A dam on Murphy Creek reduces the size of Lake Wingra.

1920 The Conklin company of Madison acquires the Lake Wingra ice house.

1922 Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic parish is founded on Rowley Street near Allen Street.

1925 Bus service reaches the western end of Monroe Street via Commonwealth Avenue. US highways 18 and 69 are routed over Monroe Street.

1926 The city buys the Zwerg farm adjacent to Forest Hill Cemetery for future cemetery expansion and immediate use as Glenway Golf Course.

1927 Dudgeon Elementary School is built on the site of the Marston house, which is moved east to the corner of Baltzell Street.
Edgewood constructs a coeducational high school and junior college for women on its campus close to Monroe Street.

1928 Saint Andrew's Episcopal moves to Regent Street, and the Roberts Court structure becomes a synagogue.

1929 Glenwood Moravian Church is built on Gilmore Street.

1930's The Ho-Chunk return for a last annual visit to their traditional campsites around Lake Wingra.

1930 West High School opens at Regent and Ash Streets.

1932 The Illinois Central discontinues its Monroe Street passenger stop.

1935 Streetcar service ends. Monroe Street is repaved and becomes part of US 151 as well as 18.

1937 The Conklin company turns over the grounds of the former ice house to the city, which transforms the area into Wingra Park.

1938 A second story is added to Dudgeon School.

1939 Fire station 7 is built on Monroe Street across from Wingra Park.

1940 As a gift to the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, the Gardner family purchases 27 1/2 acres of land along the south side of Monroe Street at its western end. Ho-nee-um Pond is formed by dredging nearby, and Jens Jensen, the world-renowned "dean of naturalistic landscaping" creates Wheeler Council Ring for the property.

1941 Parman's service station opens at Monroe and Glenway.

1941-45 Illinois Central passenger service is virtually eliminated by World War II regulations.
Edgewood College institutes a four-year degree program and converts the Marshall carriage house into a dormitory.

1944 The west side branch of the Madison Public Library opens in a rented storefront at 2606 Monroe Street.

1945 Beth El congregation temporarily moves to Roberts Court.

1947-49 "Supermarkets" are built at 1864 (Kroger's) and 2701 (Piggly Wiggly) Monroe Street.

1948 Temple Beth El opens on Arbor Drive, and Glenwood Moravian Church expands on Gilmore Street.

1949 Jens Jensen leads youth volunteers in creating Glenwood Children's Park out of the abandoned quarry, recently purchased for Madison by the Gardner family and annexed to the city along with the rest of "Briar Hill" between Western Avenue and Odana Road.

1952 US 18 and 151 are re-routed from Monroe Street to the new beltline highway.
Westminster Presbyterian moves to Nakoma.

1957 Kroger's vacates its Monroe Street supermarket after a dispute with neighbors over parking lot expansion. Fauerbach's succeeds Korger's.

1961 Millin's Market replaces Piggly Wiggly.

1962 The Monroe Street public library branch is built at 1705 Monroe Street.

1967 Fire Station 7 is moved west to Raymond Road and its former location eventually is leased to the Madison Theater Guild.

1968 Grassroots neighborhood action curtails motorboat traffic on Lake Wingra.

1969 The Madison Board of Education decides to close Dudgeon School in the near future.
In use as a convent housing some one hundred sisters, Sacred Heart Academy is condemned as a fire hazard and demolished.

1971 Dudgeon ceases operation as a public school, and its pupils are re-assigned to Thoreau and Randall Schools.

1972 Neighbors convince the city to install stop signs to slow traffic on Gregory Street and continue meeting on the future of Dudgeon School.
Child Development, Inc, leases space in Dudgeon.

1973 The Dudgeon Neighborhood Association (DNA) is formed on May 14, begins publishing a newsletter, and helps organize the Westside Coalition on Aging.

1974 The Westside Lions Club donates funds for construction of a city-owned boathouse at Wingra Park.

1975 DNA expands eastward to become the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association (D-MNA) and wins an Orchid Award for its restoration efforts at Glenwood Children's Park.

1976-77 D-MNA participates in a controversy over expansion of the Randall Bank, which eventually moves to the corner of Monroe and Spooner Streets after the vacant 1909 filling station and other structures are cleared.

1977 In part to deal with issues about the nature of the business district arising from the bank debate, the Monroe Street Merchants Association is formed.

1978 The City of Madison leases Dudgeon School on behalf of several childcare and private school programs housed there.

1979 The city purchases Dudgeon School and its playground, turning the latter over to the parks department.
DMNA publishes "Walking and Biking Through the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood".

1980 The Illinois Central Gulf railroad ceases freight operations on its Madison line, and a coalition of public bodies steps in to maintain service.
Ken Kopp's Fine Foods succeeds Fauerbach's.

1982 The Dudgeon Center for Community Programs is organized to coordinate use of the former school.
The Religious Society of Friends moves from Monroe Street into the original Saint Andrew's building on Roberts Court.

1983 To curtail pollution of Lake Wingra, the city creates a one and a half acre detention pond at Monroe and Glenway Streets.
The Monroe Street Library League forms to support the branch and deal with periodic attempts to close it or move it further west.

1984 Randall and Franklin Elementary Schools are paired in order to enhance the diversity of their student populations.

1989 Wingra Park Boathouse is destroyed by an arson fire.
Millin's Market and Jensen's Garage are closed for future demolition, followed by development of the Knickerbocker Place shopping center.

1990 Edgewood College unveils plans for its new 41,000 square-foot Rennebohm Library.

1990-91 After convincing the city to rebuild the Wingra Boathouse, DMNA participates in the design process and raises funds for landscaping.

1991 DMNA becomes involved in concern over the effects of continuing growth on the Edgewood Campus.

1992 After providing a forum for neighbors' reservations about the project, DMNA joins the University of Wisconsin Arboretum in restoring the native oak savanna along Monroe Street west of Arbor Drive.
DMNA publishes "An Insider's Guide" to the neighborhood, installs a welcome sign at Monroe and Spooner Streets, and marks the dedication of the award-winning boathouse with its first Lake Wingra Clean-Up.

1993 DMNA adds the Jazz in the Park celebration to the annual Lake Wingra Clean-Up day's events.

1994 Knickerbocker Place opens.

1995 Employing unique "green" construction techniques, new owners incorporate the original Plough Inn into the Arbor House Environmental (bed and breakfast) Inn.

1996 DMNA, the Vilas Neighborhood Association, and three Edgewood Schools form a working group to resolve issues related to campus growth; ultimately a permanent liaison group and woodlands management team are established.

1997 The abandoned Illinois Central corridor is placed in the Rails to Trails program. DMNA representatives later join a city task force overseeing the conversion. DMNA selects restoration of the Jensen Council Ring at Glenwood Children's Park as its 25th anniversary project.
Temple Beth El expands it religious school and renovates other facilities on Arbor Drive instead of moving to the suburbs.

1998 Friends of Lake Wingra organize, and the lake is chosen as the state's ecosystem management pilot project.
DMNA adopts a neighborhood long-range plan, featuring pedestrian safety and traffic calming initiatives.

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ca. 850-1150	Late Woodland peoples grow corn and construct conical, linear, and effigy mounds on higher ground adjacent to Lake Wingra and its surrounding marshes and springs.
prior to 1837	The Ho-Chunk continue corn cultivation near Lake Wingra and create an oak savanna by using prairie fires to clear brush for hunting.
1836-37	The Wisconsin Territory is organized, and after the future Madison is chosen as the capital, the first European settlers reach its site via a road retracing a Native American trail that passes just to the north of Lake Wingra. The territorial legislature later designates that route, linking Green Bay, Madison, and Monroe, a territorial road.
1848	Wisconsin becomes a state.
1850s	A brick inn is constructed by a spring on the Monroe Road near the western end of Lake Wingra. Frederick Paunack opens a quarry north of the inn, then uses sandstone from the quarry to expand the building later known as the Plough Inn.
1855	John Ashmead purchases a 55-acre tract between the Monroe Road and Lake Wingra and brings George and Samuel Chase from Philadelphia to build a mansion called Villa Edgewood.
1857	New owner Samuel Marshall completes Villa Edgewood and adds a carriage house and servants' quarters to the estate in 1864.
1858	The City of Madison opens the park-like Forest Hill cemetery on an elevation overlooking both Lake Wingra and Lake Mendota well outside the city limits.
1861-65	During the Civil War the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, a mile and a half west of Madison on the Monroe Road, becomes Camp Randall, training some 70,000 Union soldiers and housing 1500 Confederate prisoners of war.
1873	Governor Cadwallader Washburn purchases Villa Edgewood for his summer home and "gentleman's farm". Samuel and Helen Larkin Chase build their own home by Lake Wingra west of Edgewood on land given them by her parents.
ca. 1875	A brick residence is built on the Marston Farm, just east of the Plough Inn.
1881	Former Governor Washburn donates his Edgewood estate to the Dominican Sisters for educational purposes.
1887	A rail line from Madison to Freeport, Illinois, which becomes part of the Illinois Central, is sited to the north of the Monroe Road.
1893	Three pupils at the Edgewood Academy of the Sacred Heart perish in a fire that destroys Villa Edgewood.
1894	The four-story Sacred Heart Academy building replaces Villa Edgewood.
1894-95	A spur line is run from the Illinois Central tracks to Lake Wingra, where the Knickerbocker Ice Company of Chicago builds a three-story ice house.
1897	Electric streetcar service is extended by Camp Randall along Breese Terrace to a portion of the Monroe Road (now renamed Monroe Street) then to Harrison Street and out Regent Street as far as Forest Hill Cemetery.
1903	The sale of lots in the West Lawn plat begins, and that development is annexed to Madison as part of a new Tenth Ward.
1904	The Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association creates Edgewood Drive between the Edgewood campus and Lake Wingra.
1905	Architect Alvan Small designs the prairie-style Randall School, at Spooner and Regent Streets, to serve the new Tenth Ward.
1909	Madison's first gasoline filling station is built at Spooner and Monroe Streets.
1912	Leonard Gay purchases the Marston farm and begins development of the Wingra Plat bordered roughly by the ice house, Plough Inn, and rail line.
1914	Westminster Presbyterian Church is constructed at the Spooner Street entry to West Lawn.
1915	Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church just east of Spooner Street on Roberts Court. Randall Bank is established on Monroe Street.
1918	Monroe Street becomes part of state highways 19 and 31. The Illinois Central provides a passenger stop near the intersection of Monroe and Regent Streets.
1919	A dam on Murphy Creek reduces the size of Lake Wingra.
1920	The Conklin company of Madison acquires the Lake Wingra ice house.
1922	Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic parish is founded on Rowley Street near Allen Street.
1925	Bus service reaches the western end of Monroe Street via Commonwealth Avenue. US highways 18 and 69 are routed over Monroe Street.
1926	The city buys the Zwerg farm adjacent to Forest Hill Cemetery for future cemetery expansion and immediate use as Glenway Golf Course.
1927	Dudgeon Elementary School is built on the site of the Marston house, which is moved east to the corner of Baltzell Street. Edgewood constructs a coeducational high school and junior college for women on its campus close to Monroe Street.
1928	Saint Andrew's Episcopal moves to Regent Street, and the Roberts Court structure becomes a synagogue.
1929	Glenwood Moravian Church is built on Gilmore Street.
1930's	The Ho-Chunk return for a last annual visit to their traditional campsites around Lake Wingra.
1930	West High School opens at Regent and Ash Streets.
1932	The Illinois Central discontinues its Monroe Street passenger stop.
1935	Streetcar service ends. Monroe Street is repaved and becomes part of US 151 as well as 18.
1937	The Conklin company turns over the grounds of the former ice house to the city, which transforms the area into Wingra Park.
1938	A second story is added to Dudgeon School.
1939	Fire station 7 is built on Monroe Street across from Wingra Park.
1940	As a gift to the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, the Gardner family purchases 27 1/2 acres of land along the south side of Monroe Street at its western end. Ho-nee-um Pond is formed by dredging nearby, and Jens Jensen, the world-renowned "dean of naturalistic landscaping" creates Wheeler Council Ring for the property.
1941	Parman's service station opens at Monroe and Glenway.
1941-45	Illinois Central passenger service is virtually eliminated by World War II regulations. Edgewood College institutes a four-year degree program and converts the Marshall carriage house into a dormitory.
1944	The west side branch of the Madison Public Library opens in a rented storefront at 2606 Monroe Street.
1945	Beth El congregation temporarily moves to Roberts Court.
1947-49	"Supermarkets" are built at 1864 (Kroger's) and 2701 (Piggly Wiggly) Monroe Street.
1948	Temple Beth El opens on Arbor Drive, and Glenwood Moravian Church expands on Gilmore Street.
1949	Jens Jensen leads youth volunteers in creating Glenwood Children's Park out of the abandoned quarry, recently purchased for Madison by the Gardner family and annexed to the city along with the rest of "Briar Hill" between Western Avenue and Odana Road.
1952	US 18 and 151 are re-routed from Monroe Street to the new beltline highway. Westminster Presbyterian moves to Nakoma.
1957	Kroger's vacates its Monroe Street supermarket after a dispute with neighbors over parking lot expansion. Fauerbach's succeeds Korger's.
1961	Millin's Market replaces Piggly Wiggly.
1962	The Monroe Street public library branch is built at 1705 Monroe Street.
1967	Fire Station 7 is moved west to Raymond Road and its former location eventually is leased to the Madison Theater Guild.
1968	Grassroots neighborhood action curtails motorboat traffic on Lake Wingra.
1969	The Madison Board of Education decides to close Dudgeon School in the near future. In use as a convent housing some one hundred sisters, Sacred Heart Academy is condemned as a fire hazard and demolished.
1971	Dudgeon ceases operation as a public school, and its pupils are re-assigned to Thoreau and Randall Schools.
1972	Neighbors convince the city to install stop signs to slow traffic on Gregory Street and continue meeting on the future of Dudgeon School. Child Development, Inc, leases space in Dudgeon.
1973	The Dudgeon Neighborhood Association (DNA) is formed on May 14, begins publishing a newsletter, and helps organize the Westside Coalition on Aging.
1974	The Westside Lions Club donates funds for construction of a city-owned boathouse at Wingra Park.
1975	DNA expands eastward to become the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association (D-MNA) and wins an Orchid Award for its restoration efforts at Glenwood Children's Park.
1976-77	D-MNA participates in a controversy over expansion of the Randall Bank, which eventually moves to the corner of Monroe and Spooner Streets after the vacant 1909 filling station and other structures are cleared.
1977	In part to deal with issues about the nature of the business district arising from the bank debate, the Monroe Street Merchants Association is formed.
1978	The City of Madison leases Dudgeon School on behalf of several childcare and private school programs housed there.
1979	The city purchases Dudgeon School and its playground, turning the latter over to the parks department. DMNA publishes "Walking and Biking Through the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood".
1980	The Illinois Central Gulf railroad ceases freight operations on its Madison line, and a coalition of public bodies steps in to maintain service. Ken Kopp's Fine Foods succeeds Fauerbach's.
1982	The Dudgeon Center for Community Programs is organized to coordinate use of the former school. The Religious Society of Friends moves from Monroe Street into the original Saint Andrew's building on Roberts Court.
1983	To curtail pollution of Lake Wingra, the city creates a one and a half acre detention pond at Monroe and Glenway Streets. The Monroe Street Library League forms to support the branch and deal with periodic attempts to close it or move it further west.
1984	Randall and Franklin Elementary Schools are paired in order to enhance the diversity of their student populations.
1989	Wingra Park Boathouse is destroyed by an arson fire. Millin's Market and Jensen's Garage are closed for future demolition, followed by development of the Knickerbocker Place shopping center.
1990	Edgewood College unveils plans for its new 41,000 square-foot Rennebohm Library.
1990-91	After convincing the city to rebuild the Wingra Boathouse, DMNA participates in the design process and raises funds for landscaping.
1991	DMNA becomes involved in concern over the effects of continuing growth on the Edgewood Campus.
1992	After providing a forum for neighbors' reservations about the project, DMNA joins the University of Wisconsin Arboretum in restoring the native oak savanna along Monroe Street west of Arbor Drive. DMNA publishes "An Insider's Guide" to the neighborhood, installs a welcome sign at Monroe and Spooner Streets, and marks the dedication of the award-winning boathouse with its first Lake Wingra Clean-Up.
1993	DMNA adds the Jazz in the Park celebration to the annual Lake Wingra Clean-Up day's events.
1994	Knickerbocker Place opens.
1995	Employing unique "green" construction techniques, new owners incorporate the original Plough Inn into the Arbor House Environmental (bed and breakfast) Inn.
1996	DMNA, the Vilas Neighborhood Association, and three Edgewood Schools form a working group to resolve issues related to campus growth; ultimately a permanent liaison group and woodlands management team are established.
1997	The abandoned Illinois Central corridor is placed in the Rails to Trails program. DMNA representatives later join a city task force overseeing the conversion. DMNA selects restoration of the Jensen Council Ring at Glenwood Children's Park as its 25th anniversary project. Temple Beth El expands it religious school and renovates other facilities on Arbor Drive instead of moving to the suburbs.
1998	Friends of Lake Wingra organize, and the lake is chosen as the state's ecosystem management pilot project. DMNA adopts a neighborhood long-range plan, featuring pedestrian safety and traffic calming initiatives.

Dudgeon-Monroe Timeline (The First Thousand or So Years)

Dudgeon-Monroe Timeline
(The First Thousand or So Years)