Wisconsin’s costly mistake goes up in flames

In the early 1900s, the Badger State’s capitol building was seriously cramped. It was a lovely antebellum structure that had been built 40 years earlier. Now it was overflowing with legislators and bureaucrats, mountains of state documents, records for tens thousands of Wisconsin’s Civil War and Spanish-American war veterans, and even a popular state museum with countless relics, including the preserved remains of Old Abe the War Eagle, who had flown to national fame during the Civil War. By 1903, people were wondering if it was time for a new capitol building.

At that precise moment, legislators discovered a way to save taxpayers some cash. Instead of paying $800 annually for the capitol’s $600,000 insurance policy, why not self-insure? After all, $800 was a lot of money at the time — roughly the annual salary for a state government employee. Better to put that money into the State Insurance Fund and watch its bottom line grow than hand it over to a private insurance company.

So the policy was allowed to lapse in January 1904. Then the unimaginable happened just five weeks later.

Highly polished woodwork was in vogue during the Edwardian era. Wisconsin’s capitol had a bunch of it, and it required lots of attention to keep it glistening. Much of the building had been freshly varnished.

Sometime late on the night for Feb. 27, a gas light fixture’s flame ignited the fresh varnish on the ceiling. The capitol had a remarkably advanced sprinkler and firefighting system for the time. But it was no match — all that varnished wood sent the fire spreading in all directions.

The building was soon fully engulfed. Madison’s fire department arrived, but when they pointed their hoses at the blaze, nothing came out. There was no pressure — city water tanks had been drained earlier in the day so a boiler could be cleaned. On top of that, the nearby University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s reservoir was empty. Units from Milwaukee and Jacksonville’s fire departments boarded trains and raced to the scene. But when they arrived, the bitter cold temperature had frozen the water in their pumps solid.

Gov. Robert LaFollete, a Republican for what it’s worth, personally directed rescue efforts. Despite his staff’s attempts to hold him back, he repeatedly dashed into the burning structure along with University of Wisconsin students, trying to recover paintings, papers, pieces of furniture, anything they could carry out. They salvaged a handful of important items, such as a collection of silk Civil War battle flags, but not much else. Three hours later, Lafollette was soaked to the bone and his doctor ordered him to go home and change into dry clothes.

The fire burned for 18 hours. When the final flames were snuffed out, there wasn’t much left. The building’s east and west wings were gone; little of the south wing and rotunda remained. Only the north wing survived, and Wisconsin’s government crowded into it.

It took nearly nine years to build a new capitol, with the project finally finished in 1917 at a cost of $7.25 million. For the price of an additional $800 annual premium, the old building would have been fully insured at the time of the fire. Instead, Wisconsin citizens were stuck with the costly bill for the replacement.

Perhaps the most grieved over item lost in the blaze was the taxidermic remains of Old Abe. Its destruction was national news and caused great sorrow among aging Civil War veterans.

In 1915, a replica of the famous warbird was placed on a special perch inside the State Assembly chamber. It remains there today, a powerful symbol of Wisconsin’s illustrious past and a visual reminder to lawmakers to avoid being penny wise and pound foolish in the future, too.

J. Mark Powell (@JMarkPowell) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former broadcast journalist and government communicator. His weekly offbeat look at our forgotten past, “Holy Cow! History,” can be read at jmarkpowell.com.

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