423 North Pinckney Street
Madison, WI, USA

Robert M. Bashford House

The Robert M. Bashford House is an Italian Villa style house built around 1858 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States in which the governor of Wisconsin and the mayor of Madison lived. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.


History

The Bashford house was built around 1858, probably by local entrepreneur Napoleon Bonaparte Van Slyke, and possibly designed by August Kutzbock.[2] The 3-story tower, the low-pitched roof, the frieze boards, and the round-arched windows in the gable end are typical of Italian Villa style. The style would typically include brackets under the eaves, but this design omits that element. The walls are clad in local sandstone.

Banker H.K. Lawrence was first to live in the house. He was followed by Governor Edward Salomon in the 1860s.[1] Morris E. and Anna Fuller lived in the house from 1865 to 1889. Morris ran an agricultural implement dealership and bought supplies for Camp Randall during the Civil War. Robert McKee Bashford married the Fullers' daughter Sarah in 1889 and lived in the house until 1911. Bashford published the Madison Democrat newspaper, served as city attorney, mayor of Madison, state senator, and state supreme court justice. Dr. Corydon and Bessie Dwight owned the house from 1916 to 1928. Dwight was involved in the development of Vilas Park Zoo. In the 1930s the inside of the house was divided into boarding house rooms.

In 1972, the house was designated a landmark by the Madison Landmarks Commission. The building now serves as an apartment.

National Register of Historic Places - Robert M. Bashford House

Statement of Significance:

The Robert M. Bashford House has local historical importance because of its rather unique, for Madison, architectural style and its associations with political leaders at the state and local levels. Further, it is one of the major ingredients in the historical area of Madison known as "Big Bug Hill," and as such is well-known and appreciated by local citizens.

The house was most likely built in 1858 by Napoleon Bonaparte Van Slyke, a local banker and entrepreneur responsible for the construction of many of the finer mid nineteenth-century houses in Madison. It was first occupied by H. K. Lawrence, another banker and a friend of Van Slyke. The most famous occupant of the house was Gov. Edward Salomon, who lived here during his tenure as the state's chief executive, 1862-64.

German-born Salomon was never elected governor, but was elected lieutenant governor under Governor Louis P. Harvey, who was drowned near Savannah, Tennessee, while leading an expedition to bring relief to suffering Wisconsin Civil War troops, and after serving only a few months in office. It was said that Salomon was added to the ticket to attract Wisconsin's heavy German vote. He assumed the state's highest office by proclamation on April 22, 1862, and his term was strongly colored by the Civil War, which had ceased being a novelty and against which state sentiment was quickly rising. Salomon dealt firmly with draft riots in Ozaukee and Door counties, enabling Wisconsin to meet its draft quota, but destroying his own political career. Three of his brothers served in this conflict. At the end of 1863, Salomon wanted to have a term in office in his own right, but the Republican convention ignored his candidacy. In 1869 he sought a U.S. senatorial seat but was unsuccessful. That same year he moved to New York City, and in 1882 sought a post as justice in the New York Supreme Court and lost. In 1894 he moved back to Germany, where his wife died in 1899. Governor Salomon stayed there, blind and lonely, until his death in 1909 at the age of 81.

Robert M. Bashford, from whom this house received its enduring name, was a very prominent figure in Madison from 1876 until his death in 1911. He was a University of Wisconsin law school graduate who was part-owner of the Madison Democrat newspaper. He studied law in the office of Robert M. La Follette, and was private secretary to Governor William Taylor, whose daughter he married. Bashford was city attorney from 1881 to 1886 and the mayor of Madison in 1890. He was a state senator from 1891 to 1895 and served on the State Supreme Court in 1908. In 1911, Bashford died in this house.

Architecturally, the house is most likely Madison's finest Italian Villa Style structure. It is one of a steadily decreasing number of buildings constructed with local sandstone, of which it has been estimated less than a dozen-and-a-half remain. With the Victorian Gothic house and two French Victorian houses on the other three corners across from it, this house has a strong architectural identity in the minds of local residents.