Social Centers for an Emerging Town

Cross at the light over to the north side of Main Street for a close-up view of Sun Prairie’s “Old City Hall.”

Built in 1895, the hall was a significant municipal achievement for the small but growing community. Located in the center of Sun Prairie’s downtown, the building’s first floor included a council room, jail, vault and two rear bays serving as engine house storage for the local fire department, with a 1000-gallon cistern of water storage in the basement below. The second floor's open hall ran the full length of the building and was used for dances, operas, agricultural shows and other community centered events. The building is capped by 65’ tall tower that held the community’s fire bell. The city moved to a new municipal building in 1956 and the “Old City Hall” passed to private ownership, with commercial use on the first floor and apartment residences above.

From the corner of the Old City Hall, look back to the south across Main Street.

The Queen Anne style building on the corner was the Hotel Kleiner built in 1896, the town's first new hotel in over 25 years. A large “Citizen’s Benefit Banquet” was held on February 3, 1897, in honor of the formal opening of the hostelry with over 100 people attending. A hint of the pride and class of the new hotel was captured in the newspaper report of the time; “as each person was ushered in, they were given a bouquet of roses, as everything down to the minutest detail was arranged for the perfect enjoyment of the guests. Music and singing of a high order was rendered to while away the time until dinner was announced”.^[1]

After “a feast fit for the Olympian gods” a formal program of speeches was held. Most interesting for the modern observer was a speech entitled “Sun Prairie and Hotel Kleiner in 1997,” outlining predictions for the future 100 years after the night of the banquet. Although the renaming of Main Street as “Wonder Street” was a bit off, visions of Sun Prairie having grown 5 times its original size with airships, clear flowing water from wells and even a type of solar panel were described and turned out to be relatively accurate.^[2]

Scroll down for more detail on these buildings.

100 E. Main​

Historic Name: Sun Prairie City Hall​

Constructed: 1895​

2023 Business: Flavors Wine Bar

The village of Sun Prairie was first settled in 1839 and after the Wisconsin and Baraboo railroad laid tracks to the town in the late 1850s a period of steady growth ensued. By 1890, the village had a population of some 700 people, with an emerging downtown district that was the center of commerce for the surrounding agricultural area. A small, wood frame village hall stood on the northwest corner of King and Lane Streets and, after a notable fire in early 1891, was used as a rally point for the newly formed fire company. It was this fire company that spurred the action toward building a substantial city hall structure in 1895 through a petition for a vote in the spring election of that year. The hall was advertised as being an “ornament to our town…. reflecting the true enterprise and credit upon the part of our people” and notably would eliminate the need to push the heavy equipment several blocks uphill before fighting a fire in the downtown district. On April 2, 1895, the village voted 112 to 39 to approve the building of a Village Hall at a cost of $6,000.

The village board moved quickly to begin work on the new hall, securing a prime, 35’ x 100’ corner lot at the city center from C. L. Long for the sum of $1,350 in May 1895. By July, excavation of the basement was underway, and the local newspaper published a description and artist rendering of the building as designed by Marcus C. Radway of Ripon, WI, a notable local architect. The first floor included three sections; a council room fronting on Main Street was intended for the political business of the village and later served as the first library for the community. In the center section was placed a jail cell (ornamental jail bars adorn the outside of this section today) and fireproof vault for storage of important items, and in the rear of the building were 2 “garage like” bays, opening onto Bristol Street, for storage of the fire company’s engine and hook & ladder equipment. A 1000-gallon water reserve cistern located in the basement was a further piece of the building’s firefighting function. The second floor of the 35’ x 80’ building was composed entirely of a large hall intended for public gatherings with front and rear entrances and 15’ high ceilings.

The exterior of the building was finished in an ornate Romanesque Revival style and has recently been restored to reflect its original configuration. Cream colored brickwork is predominant on the south and west faces, accented with sills and lintels of burgundy colored sandstone. A distinctive, two-tiered bell tower occupies the southwest corner and was originally equipped with a fire alarm bell that could be wrung by anyone spotting a fire via a rope running down the side of the tower. This bell now sits in a small monument at the Park Street entrance to Angell Park. As originally designed and constructed, the second story of the tower was 65’ high and consisted of an enclosed “spire” type structure. The top tier was replaced by 1911 and consisted of a more open, slightly lower design that is matched by the building’s current, restored configuration. A sandstone inlay facing Main Street proudly denotes the building as “City Hall," although a bit prematurely as Sun Prairie did not formally become a city until 1958.

Construction of the building proceeded through the summer and fall of 1895 under general contractor P. J. Peterson, completing in November at a total cost of $5,375. The building was a major community achievement, and a celebratory dedication ceremony was held on November 28, 1895 with a reported 500 attendees. The day’s events included entertainment by the Sun Prairie Cornet Band and a female quartet who reportedly sang “I Softly Dream” with “such good effect that they were forced to respond to an encore.” Speeches were given by Village President H. H. Connor and local dignitaries Dr. Charles G. Crosse and John W. Leary, followed by more music and poetry. During the evening, a supper provided in the fire engine room was followed by a grand ball “attended by 97 couples and the inspiring strains of the Sun Prairie orchestra who kept the willing feet in motion until a late hour.” The new building and, more specifically, the availability of the second floor assembly hall, enabled the support of a diverse set of civic events through the late 1890s and early 1900s. A sampling of contemporary news articles indicates agricultural shows, lectures, dances, concerts, operas and graduation ceremonies all took place in the hall. The hall served as a gymnasium for winter athletics and was even used for an indoor baseball league.^[3]

Sun Prairie’s population surpassed 1,500 in the 1930s as the village slowly outgrew the City Hall. In conjunction with the construction of a new municipal building on Columbus Street in 1956, now the home of Sun Prairie Fire and EMS services, the village sold the “Old City Hall” to local developer Emden Schey in 1954 with the intention for it to be the home of a proposed new bank. Ultimately, however, the bank’s approval for organization was denied and the property was used as Schey’s real estate office and other commercial purposes. The second floor hall was reconfigured for three apartments and the original fire company bays were transitioned as a separate commercial entrance on Bristol Street. Nevertheless, the building continued to serve as an icon for Sun Prairie’s downtown, with the bell tower architectural theme carried into the construction Sun Prairie’s new City Hall in 1993 and the development of Cannery Square in 2004. Because Sun Prairie was not incorporated as a city until 1958, the building was never actually used as a City Hall.

On July 10, 2018, a contractor struck an underground gas line while boring a hole for fiber-optic cable, resulting in a fatal explosion that destroyed several downtown buildings and severely damaged the Old City Hall. Subsequent restoration work not only repaired the damage but also returned the building closer to its original 1890s configuration and external appearance, including full restoration of the second floor as an open space.

101-105 E. Main​

Historic Name: Hotel Kleiner​

Constructed: 1896​

2023 Businesses: Budding Butterfly, Abarrotes El Primo Taqueria

Hotel Kleiner was built in 1896 and was welcomed as the first new hotel established within the growing town of Sun Prairie in over 25 years. By 1904 the building was known as Hotel Greene and was later named the Commercial Hotel. The building housed the Sun Prairie Post Office until a stand-alone building was constructed on Main Street in 1910. In 1936, it was purchased by Esther and Frank Hebl who continued its use as a hotel and later a rooming house. Today the building hosts businesses in its street level commercial space and private apartments in its upper floors.

109 E. Main​

Historic Name: Robinson & Belda Building​

Constructed: 1958​

2023 Business: Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce

To the left of the Hotel Kleiner is the youngest building in Sun Prairie’s Downtown Historic District originally constructed for the Robinson & Belda Real Estate and Insurance office. The current structure replaced the last metal-sided building in the district – an 18’ x 26’ building of galvanized steel erected in 1927 by the S.E. Beers Insurance Agency.^[4]

^[1] Countryman (Sun Prairie) February 4th, 1897.

^[2] Countryman (Sun Prairie) February 18th, 1897.

^[3] Countryman (Sun Prairie) November 28th, 1895.

^[4] Countryman (Sun Prairie) April 28th, 1927.