e sse nt i al landmark
HISTORIC DOWNTOWN
SUN PRAIRIE Vibrant Past, Vibrant Present
by Jeanne Engle Comprised of portions of four city blocks consisting of 28 buildings facing onto the 100 and 200 blocks of East Main Street, the Sun Prairie Downtown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. According to the National Register nomination, “Collectively, the buildings in the district have a significance that is even greater than the merit they possess individually because surviving streetscapes of such buildings are rapidly nearing extinction in the changing economic and social reality that characterizes the downtowns of Wisconsin’s cities today.” The story is told that a group of men led by Augustus Bird traveled 28 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
from Milwaukee to Madison to build Wisconsin’s territorial capitol. On June 9, 1837, they arrived to sunshine at the edge of a large prairie after days of rain. There they carved the words “Sun Prairie” into a tree. In 1839, Charles Bird, Augustus’ younger brother, became the first settler in Sun Prairie. It was on his land that the future downtown was established. Commerce developed as local merchants opened businesses to serve the farmers who arrived nearby. Work on a railroad from Milwaukee to the Baraboo Valley stopped at Sun Prairie in 1859. For the next 10 years until the railroad was completed to Madison, Sun Prairie prospered and became the
shipping point for produce from the surrounding area. Once the railroad no longer ended in Sun Prairie, trade in the village waned until late in the 1800s. Commerce finally picked up, necessitating new buildings in the downtown district. One of the first to be built in the commercial vernacular style in 1878 was the George Maloney block at 223-225 E. Main Street. Today, Nest Interior Design is in one-half of the building, at 223. In business since 2005, Nest Interior Design has been at its current location since 2014. Owner Nicole Fulton is proud to have her business in a historic district. She says, “For us as interior
