an evening in middle america

King Street / Madison, Wisconsin
We just returned from a lovely long weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. It is a very progressive (read: left of center) city that has been able to hold onto its small town charm. We had dinner at a fantastic sushi place - Restaurant Muramoto - on King Street from where this shot was taken looking up towards the State Capitol. Construction of the present capitol building, the third in Madison, began in late 1906 and was completed in 1917 at a cost of $7.25 million. The architect was George B. Post & Sons from New York. The Capitol is 284' 5" tall from the ground floor to the top of the statue on the dome, making the building 3 feet shorter than the nation's capitol in Washington D.C. The Capitol was constructed out of 43 kinds of stone from six countries and eight states. The exterior dome is the largest granite dome in the world.