The Madison guide book, Madison, Wisconsin - Surrounded by Reality

24THE CITY OF MADISON.Macoy Commandery, and Madison Chapter of the EasternStar meet here. A club room, open to members andvisiting brethren, is in the basement.At 223 Wisconsin avenue is the site of the old storekept by Jehu Lewis. Over this store was the firsttheatre in Madison, 1851-52. A private school taught byProf. George, an Englishman, was held in the same hall.Let us now retrace our steps along Wisconsin avenuetoward the Capitol. At the corner of the avenue andDayton street are three churches. On the southwestcorner is Christ Presbyterian Church. It is of redbrick, built in 1892; cost sixty thousand dollars.On the northeast corner of Wisconsin avenue and E.Dayton streets is the First Methodist Church, a plainlarge stone building, finished in 1876 at a cost of fiftythousand dollars.The Unitarian Church, a small stonebuilding, with rounded windows and stone porch, standsacross E. Dayton street from the First Methodist church.It cost eighteen thousand dollars, erected in 1886.We walk one blcck toward the Capitol and are at theCity Hall, corner W. Mifiiin and Wisconsin avenue. Itisof grey stone, three stories high, surmounted by a boxlikeclock tower. When built in 1858 it was thought tobe an imposing edifice. The Madison free library fillsthe first floor. The books are soon to be removed to thenew building on N. Carroll street. This was the firstfree public library in the state: opened in May, 1875.Eighteen thousand volumes are on its shelves.On the second floor are the Mayor's ofiice. Aldermen'schamber, rooms of the City Treasurer, Clerk andEngineer and Board of Water Commissioners. An un-