To spot the Baskerville Apartment Building, look for a tan brick, wedge-shaped structure with balconies and iron railings right where S. Hamilton meets W. Doty, standing tall on a red brick base.
Standing here outside the Baskerville, let's take a little stroll back to 1913, when this spot bustled at the very edge of a downtown that was growing so fast people could barely keep up. Picture the city’s streets alive with the clatter of horse-drawn wagons, bicycles, and more than a few hopeful folks on foot - remember, this was before cars took over, so no Uber rides home yet! Now, as Madison’s job market boomed thanks to the university, government, and industry, the demand for downtown living soared. Developers, spotting opportunity like hungry ducks at the lakeshore, started stacking new apartment buildings upward instead of outward. The Baskerville, designed by Richard L. Wright, was one of the early giants of this new residential style. Four stories tall, stretching up on its triangular plot, it was sort of the ‘skyscraper’ of apartment buildings in 1913 Madison.
Can you see the balconies tucked into the walls, the iron railings just waiting for neighbors to gossip over them? If you listen closely, you might almost hear the clatter of elevator gears and footsteps on marble tiles -. Imagine stepping into the marble-paneled vestibule, the dark woodwork beyond casting cozy shadows while decorative columns tried their best to be fancy. Each floor had six apartments, but the rooms, tricky and clever, shifted shape to fit the building’s slice-of-pie layout. Down in the basement, the laundry and boiler room rumbled along, keeping things running smoothly.
The Baskerville cost a whopping $50,000 to build (a fortune back then!) and, after a century of stories, scandals, and Saturday night card games, it’s now a proud landmark-a place that’s weathered the years and still claims its spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Not bad for a downtown wedge, right? And just think: every balcony, every brick, has witnessed all the changing faces of Madison, generation after generation.
