Downtown Madison used to be a place to raise a family.
The quiet streets of our precious downtown were once lined with lovely family homes, the tree-shaded avenues whispering with the summer winds drifting off Lake Mendota. In the great plains of the American Midwest, Madison stood out as a scenic place to build a home.
But those days are long gone.
Liquor stores and colossal apartments have since set up shop on these once-sleepy streets, neon-lined havens for thousands of hollering college students. These enthusiastic Badgers colonized the streets just off campus with tremendous vigor, but artifacts of the bygone residential era remain.
One example is the Behrend house on North Broom Street, a family home that dates back to the 1870s. The domain has since been converted to student housing, but from the exterior it remains very similar to its original form.
You can see the house on the far left in the photos below:
Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society
Katie Cooney/The Badger Herald
