Downtown Living, a walking tour presented by Downtown Madison, Inc. and Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc., showed off some of Madison’s swankiest homes north of East Gorham Sunday.
Starting six blocks east of the Capitol, the walkers toured an area of mixed student housing and residential homes nearing 100 years old. Claude and Starks, an architecture duo famed for their Prairie Style homes throughout Madison in the early 1900s, designed many of the homes. Their style is known for its spacious interiors, offering large living rooms in neighborhoods that primarily feature smaller more conservative styles.
The tour guides said the homes were not grandiose, drawing attention to the homes’ ten-foot ceilings and exposed wood banisters.
The homes stood in stark contrast to modern student housing built around the same time, which has been maintained with far less care.
The homes portrayed the diverse atmospheres in the eclectic neighborhoods of Madison’s northern isthmus shore.
Both 1047 and 1010 Sherman Ave. displayed the quintessential Claude and Starks design, with wide family rooms and picture windows offering a view of a serene street overlooking Lake Mendota.
Although the homes’ interiors stand out from the more conservative-style homes surrounding them, the houses’ exteriors are not extravagant. The outside faces of the houses do not separate themselves from the tightly built neighborhood like some of the other mansion-like homes on Sherman Avenue
A few blocks south, 1041 E. Johnson St. offered a comfortable house built by Thomas and Nellie Copps in 1905, drawn back only 15 feet or so from the busy urban channel.
Two lakefront places, 818 Prospect Place, and the 720 E. Gorham Street Lincoln School also displayed the neighborhood’s uniqueness. The home on Prospect Place, which runs parallel to Gorham, is located on a sharp hill on the short cul-de-sac.
The Claude and Starks’ house showcases smaller rooms with a front porch featuring skylights and three different back porches overlooking the lake.
Lincoln Elementary School is a striking example of how older and new construction projects blended until the late seventies. Rooms that were once parts of gymnasiums and classrooms have been turned into upscale apartments, with high vaulting ceilings.