e ssential landmark
ALEXANDER SMITH BY JEANNE ENGLE As a young man, Alexander Smith emigrated from England (or perhaps Ireland, depending on which early census one views) in the 1800s to the township of Blooming Grove outside of Madison. There, in 1848, the same year that Wisconsin became a state and eight years before Madison was incorporated as a city, he purchased a quarter of a section (160 acres) in the northern part of the township. Smith’s land had been previously owned by Lucius Lyon, who was contracted years before to survey what would become the Territory of Wisconsin. Lyon had bought several thousand acres in Dane County from the U.S. government. Smith built a Greek Revival-style farmhouse on his land. Greek Revival architecture was popular from 1825 to 1860 in more-isolated parts of the country, but Smith’s farmhouse was much more than a typical farmhouse of its day. Its walls were constructed by Cornish craftsmen in the style of authentic centuries-old British tradition. Limestone from a local quarry just a short distance away was used. 24 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
The house was designated a Madison landmark in November 1971.
House windows] … resulted in the most distinctive indigenous architecture to be found in the area.
According to the landmark nomination: The availability of stratified quarry stone for intermediate wall construction coupled with that of larger cap stone for corner quoins [blocks] and chimney exteriors, as well as dressed stone for lintels and sills [across the tops and bottoms of
At the time it was built, the Alexander Smith house was two stories tall in the shape of a Greek temple. A gable on the house at 5301 Milwaukee Street faces the street and has heavy cornices. The front of the house features an off-center main door set between sidelights with a rectangular transom above, six-over-six
