The now-closed Silver Dollar Tavern and four adjacent buildings can be demolished, as long as owner Hovde Properties keeps their terracotta decorative tiles for future development on the site, city officials decided.
The Madison Plan Commission voted 4-1 to give conditional approval for Hovde Properties to raze the five single-story commercial buildings at 117-125 W. Mifflin St. in downtown Madison. That was despite heavy opposition — including from two City Council members. The lone commission member to oppose the permit was former alder Patrick Heck.
The day after the commission vote, the city sent a disposition letter to Hovde Properties detailing several pages worth of conditions for final approval of the demolition permit. Chief among the conditions was one stating that Hovde must preserve terracotta tiling from the front facades of the buildings "for potential reuse in a manner that evokes the former buildings’ design."
Hovde Properties — co-owned by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, who’s also the CEO — has explained that its demolition request is linked to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s building project next door. The new Wisconsin History Center on Capitol Square will be a five-story, 100,000-square-foot museum dedicated to the state’s history.
Hovde Properties said in demolition request documents that the new History Center’s construction could impede its access to the Hovde buildings next door. If Hovde is able to raze the five buildings, it would clear out more space for the History Center and allow Hovde to contemplate a future mixed-use structure for the site it says would be a “tremendous asset to downtown Madison.”
Hovde Properties recently purchased the former home of the Silver Dollar Tavern, which was established in 1933 and was Madison’s oldest existing bar. The tavern closed after last call on Feb. 3. The demolition permits would allow Hovde to deconstruct space referred to as the Mifflin Arcade, which includes the Silver Dollar building.
The Mifflin Arcade was a group of retail facades that represented Madison’s first true shopping center. The architecture of the arcade was rare even when it was built over 100 years ago.
Representatives of the nonprofit Madison Trust for Historic Preservation pointed out to the Plan Commission that once those structures are gone, they are gone forever and the materials and architecture cannot be duplicated today.
“The Madison Trust is opposed to the demolition of these historically significant buildings,” Bob Klebba, one of its board members, wrote in a letter to the Plan Commission. “This is especially the case when there is no proposed development for the properties.”
Hovde Properties has not formally announced specific plans for the site other than to say it would build a mixed-use development including retail and housing at a future time.
Buildings lack historical landmark status
While none of the buildings proposed for demolition has certified historical significance and they are not in a registered historic district, Madison’s Landmark Commission successfully lobbied Hovde to preserve the terracotta tiling.
The Mifflin Arcade, according to Madison City Council member Mike Verveer, who has served as a downtown alder since 1995, was central to a long ago attempt to name the State Street area as a registered historic district.
Four adjacent buildings once known as the Mifflin Arcade have been largely vacant for two decades.
During last week's Plan Commission meeting, Verveer detailed previous attempts to designate State Street as part of a registered historic district, and said that Hovde Properties has long opposed such a move specifically because it wanted to build future developments that would have been made more difficult by a historic designation.
“The State Street national registration district was single-handedly derailed because of these buildings at the time,” Verveer told the Commission. “This applicant, at the time, fought the establishment of an historic district because it would not be able to do this very demolition in the future. Over the past 30 years, this applicant has applied for this demolition and has been denied either by the Plan Commission or reversed course before it even made it to the commission.”
The destruction of historic facades of State Street has permeated the past several years of development downtown, as Madison’s governing bodies approved mixed-use projects up and down the city’s most recognizable area.
Longtime businesses have been forced to move or close; building height limits have been skirted around through the use of stepbacks; and the character of the heart of Madison’s downtown has been called into question.
All of this weighed on Verveer’s and fellow downtown Alder Marsha Rummel’s minds during the Plan Commission meeting.
“I have to confess that in my mind I am pairing this situation with one that you dealt with last summer with the demolition permit for the 400 block of State Street,” Verveer said, “which were also contributing structures to the potential historic district of State Street. To have the Mifflin Arcade demolished … it’s just very difficult.”
Rummel, in a letter to the Plan Commission and in comments during the public hearing, echoed the sentiments that the Mifflin Arcade demolition is wrong for downtown.
“I do not believe the demolition standards are met,” Rummel said. “I don't believe the proposed demolition is consistent with the statement of purpose of the demolition permits section and with the health, prosperity, safety and welfare of the city of Madison. I urge you to support preserving and reusing the entire building, not just the terracotta tiles.”
Ultimately, commissioners chose to give approval to the demolition permit as long as Hovde Properties complies with the conditions they set.
