wisconsin capitol building tours

Free Inspiration Guide

With Love, Madison

Inspire Your Inbox

Sign up for seasonal emails

Madison On Tap

The LeFevre Quartet

Wisconsin State Capitol

• Phone: (608) 266-0382

Offering beautiful mosaics and towering marble columns, visit the State Capitol to experience the rich history of Wisconsin's diverse ethnic heritage on a free guided tour, or explore on your own.

Open to the public weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and weekends and holidays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Free tours are offered daily , year round except on the following holidays: New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas. Tours start at the information desk Monday through Saturday at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 p.m. A 4:00 p.m. tour is offered weekdays (Monday - Friday), excluding holidays, during Memorial Day through Labor Day. Plan on spending 45-55 minutes for a tour. The sixth floor museum and observation deck are open during the summer months.

Groups of ten or more can make an  on-line reservation for a tour of the State Capitol  or call (608)266-0382.

• Days/Hours: Monday - Friday: 8am - 6pm Weekends and Holidays: 8am - 4pm
• Free Wi-Fi:
• Wheelchair Accessible:

Attractions

• Family Friendly:

Madison Marathon

Nov 10, 2024 - Nov 10, 2024

For Seasonal Trip-spiration, Sign Up Now

Explore Madison On Tap

Sign Up Now

View & Download

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

22 e. mifflin street, suite 200

madison, wi 53703

(608) 255-2537 • (800) 373-6376

[email protected]

22 e. mifflin street, suite 200, madison, wi 53703

(608) 255-2537 • (800) 373-6376 • [email protected]

© Destination Madison

• Our Partners

Would you like to accept cookies?

Wisconsin State Capitol Tours

Drop-in tours (45-55 min.) start at the Information Desk (inside the central rotunda). Mon.- Sat. at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 p.m. Sundays at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 p.m. A 4:00 p.m. tour is offered weekdays (Monday - Friday) Memorial Day through Labor Day. Reservations requested for groups of ten or more.

2 E Main Madison, WI, 53702

(608) 266-0382 tours.wisconsin.gov

Category: Museums & Libraries Specialty: Visitor Tours

First Capitol

Get Your Capitol Ornament!

First Capitol will reopen for general admission in May 2024 . While you wait, add a capitol keepsake to your holiday décor with our 2023 Wisconsin State Capitol ornament !

Get the Best Deal in History  

Wisconsin Historical Society members receive unlimited free admission to our 11 historic sites and museums, a complimentary annual subscription to the Wisconsin Magazine of History, merchandise discounts and more. Join at the Family level and above for added benefits and discounts at over 1,200 organizations nationwide! 

Discover the Birthplace of Wisconsin Government  

Madison has long been Wisconsin’s capital city, but the first 40 laws were made 50 miles southwest, here in Belmont. Welcome to Wisconsin’s First Capitol, where for just 46 days in 1836 representatives met to lay the foundation for our state’s government. Immerse yourself in the world of these founders, walking through the buildings and rooms where these important decisions were made. 

FIELD TRIPS & GROUP TOURS

Field Trips

The best day of your school year awaits! Don’t just read about history, experience it! Field Trips at the Wisconsin Historical Society’s historic sites and museums allow students to step into the worlds they’re studying through fun adventures and engaging experiences around the state for grades k-12.  

Group Tours

Travel Together Through Time and bring your group tour to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s sites and museums. Experience the worlds and wonders of Wisconsin’s past. Book your group tour today! Tours include private guide(s) that can be customized to meet the needs and interests of your group.

Members Get Free Admission!

Become a Wisconsin Historical Society member and visit all 12 of our historic sites for free! Membership pays for itself in as little as two visits and includes other great benefits like discounts and reciprocal benefits to more than 1,200 organizations.

Discover the rugged origins of the first capitol of Wisconsin Territory, where legislators laid down the framework for the current state government.

As the start of several upcoming site improvements, we have Fink Fencing out of Platteville on site today. The team is installing a fence at the back of the property. Archaeologists were on site to monitor the project. Stay tuned for more upcoming projects! ... See More See Less

• Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

We are hiring! We are hiring for our facilities manager position at Villa Louis. This full-time position is responsible for supporting the management of Villa Louis facilities and infrastructure by monitoring and facilitating contractor activities, minor restoration & construction, ensuring equipment and building systems are operational, janitorial duties, addressing all maintenance needs, along with managing and performing landscaping and lawn care. For a full position description and details on the application process visit bit.ly/3U2EVHE All applications must be submitted online using the provided link. The position closes on April 25. Questions can be directed to [email protected] or (608) 264-6409. ... See More See Less

Do you or someone you know love history? Want to work at a place spanning over a hundred and fifty years of Wisconsin’s history? Are you in the Mineral Point and Belmont areas? Apply for a summer job with the Wisconsin Historical Society at Pendarvis and First Capitol! Help guide guests through the buildings and grounds and experience first hand all the awesome events put on at the site. Apply online, add your resume with your experience--even if it’s only a little--and we will get in touch with you! No experience necessary! We would be happy to have you! Returning staff need not apply online, you will receive an email. wihist.org/3uxvOoa ... See More See Less

Book a Tour

Reservations are recommended .

The Capitol Visitor Center is open Monday-Saturday from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tours begin every 10 minutes until 3:20 p.m. All tours are led by our professional tour guides and visit the  Crypt , the  Rotunda  and  National Statuary Hall . The tour does not include the  Senate and House Galleries . The tour route is subject to change.

Reservations are recommended, but not required. Visit the  schedule a tour  page to select a day/time for a reservation. Same day passes may be available. Visitors without reservations are encouraged to arrive at the Capitol Visitor Center as early in the day as possible, but no later than 2:30 p.m., to obtain passes.

All tours, programs and activities are free of charge.

Visitors enter through the Capitol Visitor Center, located underground on the east side of the Capitol. Please leave time to go through security and review the U.S. Capitol’s  prohibited items list  before your visit.

You can begin your Capitol experience at the Visitor Center by visiting Exhibition Hall , perusing our Gift Shops or getting a bite to eat at the Capitol Cafe.

For information on tours offered in Mandarin and Spanish, please view the Foreign Language Tours page.

How Do I Cancel My Reservation?

You can cancel your reservation through your account in the Capitol Visitor Center’s online reservation system.

• Go to  https://tours.visitthecapitol.gov  (A new page will open.)
• Beneath the blue banner reading “Reserve a Tour of the Capitol,” click on the link to log in. (A sign in/signup dialog box will open.)
• In the sign in section, log in with your email address and password.
• Search for reservations by clicking “More” in the “My Reservations” tab.
• Once you have located your reservation, click the link to “Cancel.”

Students Tour Wisconsin Capitol Building

On Monday, students toured the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison. We enjoyed a guided tour through the impressively designed building, visiting the chambers for the senate, assembly, supreme court, governor’s conference, and of course, the rotunda. Did you know that the Wisconsin capitol is sixteen fee two inches taller than the US capitol building?

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Related posts, christmas lights in janesville.

Fun at a Corn Maze

SA Fall Picnic Features Canoe Trip

Juniors Read With Elementary Students

Skiing at Cascade Mountain

• Add a Listing

Press Releases

• Political Contributions Tracker
• Bruce Murphy
• Food & Drink
• Become a Member

Buy a Gift Membership

• Giveaways + Events

Coalition Pushes Closing Wisconsin’s Green Bay Prison

126-year-old maximum security facility in 'dire state' and way over capacity.

The Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez, built in the 1890s, is Wisconsin’s second-oldest state prison. Rauglothgor/Wikimedia Commons

A coalition of politicians, members of law enforcement and formerly incarcerated people took to the state Capitol last week to urge the governor and state lawmakers to shut down one of Wisconsin’s oldest prisons.

The group’s goal is to get Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to commit to closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution, or GBCI, in Wisconsin’s next two-year budget, Rep. David Steffen , R-Green Bay, said during a forum in Madison.

He was joined by numerous local elected officials, including Allouez Village President Jim Rafter , who’s running for the state Senate as a Republican.

A 2020 report detailed numerous problems at the 126-year-old maximum-security facility in Allouez, including security concerns, leaky plumbing and noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“All of the major prison codes relating to construction and operation, it has failed,” Steffen said. “It is in a dire state, and it’s waiting for a major issue to happen.”

Steffen has long argued for closing Green Bay and opening another prison elsewhere in the state to replace it. But efforts to do so have floundered at the state-level despite years of advocacy from officials in Greater Green Bay .

One five-year-old estimate pegged the cost of replacing Green Bay at up to half a billion dollars .

At the same time, progressive proponents of criminal justice have opposed building another prison. Instead, they’ve argued for reducing Wisconsin’s incarcerated population so replacement is not necessary.

“It’s not understaffing, it’s overcrowding,” JOSHUA Co-President Steve Warner said of GBCI’s problems during the forum in Madison. “We have way too many people in our prison system in this state.”

JOSHUA, a progressive faith-based organization, is part of the coalition advocating for Green Bay’s closure.

More than 1,000 men are locked up at Green Bay, according to the department’s latest count, making the prison over capacity by about 300 people.

That’s forced men to double-up in cells designed for a single person, noted Randy Knapp , whose 23-year-old son is incarcerated at Green Bay.

“When they eat their meals, morning, noon and night, they’re within about 2 feet of the toilet,” Knapp said. “What a table.”

Departments of Corrections Spokesperson Beth Hardtke said inmates began eating meals in their cells in 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19. She said that practice continues at some prisons, including Green Bay, because of understaffing.

Close to 30 percent of corrections officer positions remain empty at Green Bay Correctional. That’s despite raises for those employees which went into effect July 1.

During the forum in Madison, several panelists argued pay alone isn’t enough to recruit and maintain staff at the dilapidated prison, which has earned the nickname “Gladiator School.”

Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain said the outdated design of the prison makes it inefficient to patrol and puts staff at risk. And, he said, the facility’s layout isn’t conducive to rehabilitating inmates so they can return to society.

“That kind of goes back to an overall frustration of being housed in a small, tight environment for extended periods of time,” DeLain said. “The staff does the very best they can. But the facility limits their ability to be able to allow inmates to move to different areas and have recreation and different programming.”

The cells at Green Bay measure roughly 56 square feet and the 2020 report found they didn’t meet modern American Correctional Association standards at single occupancy, let alone double occupancy.

Citing safety concerns amid severe short-staffing staffing, DOC officials have been limiting the movement and activities of prisoners at Green Bay for the last 10 months.

While officials say they’ve since lifted some lockdown restrictions , prisoners at Green Bay continue to face limits on their allotted recreation time.

Normally, DOC rules require at least four hours of recreation time per week . But, Green Bay inmates are currently getting just over four hours a month.

Hardtke said the department plans to increase allotted leisure time at Green Bay next month.

Earlier this year, Evers told WISN-TV that closing Green Bay Correctional would be “premature.” In that interview, Evers suggested that space for incarcerated adults could eventually be freed up when the Lincoln Hills youth prison in northern Wisconsin closes.

The Lincoln Hills School for boys and nearby Copper Lake Schools for girls are being overseen by a court-appointed monitor after a 2017 lawsuit described widespread civil rights violations at the youth facilities. A 2018 state law set a deadline for Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake to close in 2021, but that timeline has long since passed amid stalled plans for replacement facilities .

In a statement Friday, an Evers spokesperson says there’s been “no change in the governor’s positions” on closing or replacing Green Bay.

“Any plan to close an adult correctional institution must be comprehensive and considered holistically based on the needs of Wisconsin’s adult corrections program,” spokesperson Britt Cudaback wrote in an email.

Listen to the WPR report

Coalition pushes for closure of Wisconsin’s Green Bay prison was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits .

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month . Learn more .

Join now and cancel anytime .

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us

Latest Articles & Columns

• Help assure the future of city’s fastest growing publication.

Read more Press Releases

3 Most Popular

Recent Comments

• CraigR on Public Meeting On Freeway-To-Boulevard Project
• TosaGramps1315 on Campaigns Will Spend ‘Hundreds of Millions’ in Wisconsin, Party Chairs Say
• Duane on Urban Reads: Construction Starts on Las Vegas to L.A. High Speed Rail Line
• frank a schneiger on Transportation: Milwaukee An Outlier For Rising Traffic Deaths
• Ryan Cotic on UW-Platteville Vacating Richland Campus

More New Faces

Information

• Privacy Policy
• Submit a Press Release

Daily Email Update

Take the next step, become a member. Ditch the ads, get free stuff

Urban Milwaukee: The Store

This ad will close automatically in 15 seconds.

Tired of seeing banner ads on Urban Milwaukee? Become a member for $9/month .

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Mike Johnson and the troubled history of recent Republican speakers

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attends a news conference at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Julia Nikhinson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attends a news conference at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

When the House returns from its recess next week, Speaker Mike Johnson is now widely expected to resume his duties without immediately facing a motion to oust him.

Just such a "motion to vacate the chair" was filed against Johnson in March by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But Greene has yet to make the motion "privileged," which under the rules would necessitate a vote within two days.

Greene had vowed to press her challenge after Johnson announced a strategy to pass $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan earlier this month. About two-thirds of that money was for Ukraine, an issue Greene had called her "red line" for moving against the speaker.

Two colleagues had spoken up to say they would join Greene in such a vote, giving her enough to defeat the speaker if all the chamber's Democrats voted to do the same. That's what the Democrats did when a motion to vacate the chair ousted the last Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last fall. He had been in the job less than nine months.

But this time around several Democrats have indicated they would cross the aisle to support Johnson and frustrate Greene & Co. if it came to a vote. Democratic leaders have indicated they are open to this, and it essentially repeats the strategy that allowed Johnson to pass the Ukraine portion of the aid bill earlier this month.

3rd Republican joins motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker

So Greene may have missed her moment. Johnson has gained stature and won bipartisan praise for letting the whole House vote on the aid package. He also got strong support in the Senate , where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. The package was signed into law by President Biden the following day.

But as Greene has said, the existence of her motion serves as a warning. She could activate a vote at any time so Johnson should know he is skating on thin ice.

And that is true, he should. Even a glance at the history of Republican speakers since World War II would tell him that.

The current state of internal politics among House Republicans is so unsettled that almost anything could happen at almost any time.

As Shakespeare wrote: "Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown," and in recent history that goes double for speakers who are also Republicans.

Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994, the year the party won its first House majority and elected a speaker of its own for the first time in 40 years. The hard truth is that the five who preceded Johnson (McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich) all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration. And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s.

There's been a history of hard landings

The 30-year saga began with Gingrich of Georgia, who was the first member of his party to gain "the big gavel" since the early 1950s and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Gingrich had been a backbench rabble-rouser since coming to the House in 1978 and built up a cadre of supporters until he won the party's No. 2 power position as minority whip in 1989. He soon eclipsed the party's leader, Robert Michel, who was nearing retirement.

In 1994, two years into the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Gingrich organized a campaign around a 10-item agenda called the "Contract with America." It provided a unified message for the party's nominees, who flipped more than 50 seats and stormed into the majority.

Gingrich managed to restore many of the powers of the speakership but clashed repeatedly with Clinton and even with Republican leaders in the Senate. In 1997, in his second Congress as speaker, he barely survived a largely covert challenge from within his own leadership team. And just shy of his fourth anniversary in the job, he was voted out by the full House Republican conference in December 1998.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (center), shown here surrounded by House Republicans, holds up a copy of the "Contract With America" during a speech on April 7, 1995 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Richard Ellis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (center), shown here surrounded by House Republicans, holds up a copy of the "Contract With America" during a speech on April 7, 1995 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Once Gingrich was gone, the line of succession was not clear. The No. 2 Republican at the time did not have the votes, and the No. 3 declined to run. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee was nominated by the party conference but withdrew after a magazine story accused him of marital infidelity.

The mantle fell to Hastert of Illinois, the chief deputy whip. Like Johnson an era later, Hastert was a relatively quiet member of the leadership who enjoyed goodwill generally in the rank and file. Hastert was speaker through the last two Clinton years and first six of the George W. Bush presidency. But he voluntarily resigned after the GOP lost badly in the 2006 midterms, a defeat Bush called "a thumpin' " at the time.

Those eight years actually made Hastert the longest-serving Republican speaker in history. But any luster left after 2006 was lost when he went to prison for bank fraud charges stemming from hush money payments he had made to a former student he admitted to having sexually abused decades earlier.

The next two Republican speakers would be John Boehner, elevated to the job by the GOP recapture of the House in the "Tea Party" election of 2010. Boehner worked hard to fashion budget deals with both a Democratic President Barack Obama and a Democratic Senate. But his efforts alienated some in his own ranks who in 2015 formed an insurgent group known as the House Freedom Caucus. Increasingly exasperated with his untenable predicament, Boehner simply resigned in October of that year.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (right) and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy walk through the Capitol rotunda on May 17, 2023. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (right) and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy walk through the Capitol rotunda on May 17, 2023.

Here again, the line of succession was not as clear as it appeared. The well-respected No. 2 Republican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, had lost his primary in 2014. The No. 3, McCarthy, soon ran aground over remarks in a TV interview and lacked the votes to be speaker. The party settled on Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who had not sought the gavel but agreed to take it.

Ryan, then just 45, was the youngest speaker in nearly 150 years but had already been party's vice presidential nominee on the 2012 ticket. Once he had Boehner's job, however, he experienced much the same internal strife. Ryan also had a strained relationship with then-President Donald Trump, with whom he had a falling out during the fall 2016 campaign. In April 2018, Ryan said he would not serve another term and left as the party was losing its majority that fall.

More distant memories

Prior to the GOP's 40-year sentence as the minority party, several of its speakers had risen to the top rung largely on their personal popularity among their colleagues. One was Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, who led the party in the House during two brief interludes of majority status after World War II. Both lasted only the minimum two years, the first ending with Democratic Harry S. Truman's surprise White House win in 1948. Martin was back four years later when Eisenhower was first elected president in 1952, but that tour at the top was cut short by his party's sharp losses two years later.

Prior to that, the last Republican speaker had been Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, who died in 1931. Technically, he died as speaker, but his party lost its majority before the next Congress convened and elected a Democrat to the job.

Nicholas Longworth, speaker of the House, holds a gun once owned by famous outlaw Jesse James on Jan. 23, 1930. Bettmann Archive hide caption

Nicholas Longworth, speaker of the House, holds a gun once owned by famous outlaw Jesse James on Jan. 23, 1930.

Although Longworth was speaker for only a little over five years, he was well-regarded and symbolic of Republican prosperity in its heydays under Teddy Roosevelt (his father-in-law) and again in the 1920s. When Congress authorized a new House office building in 1931, shortly after Longworth's death, it was named for him and remains so today.

His predecessor, Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts, also had the top job for less than five years. But when he left after the 1924 session, his party was still firmly in control and had just elected President Calvin Coolidge to a full term. Gillett himself moved on to the Senate.

Longevity has simply not been a hallmark of Republican speakers. The list of the 10 speakers who served in the job longest includes just one Republican (and in the ninth slot at that). That speaker was Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, notorious as the autocratic "Czar Cannon" during three two-year tours as speaker that ended with his party's historic defeat in 1910.

Democrats and durability

Democrats too have had their short speakerships. In 1989 Speaker Jim Wright of Texas resigned under pressure following revelations about a book deal the House Ethics Committee saw as circumventing fundraising rules. Wright had only been in the job a little over two years at the time. Longworth's successor, John "Cactus Jack" Garner of Texas, left the office after just over a year to be Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president.

But as a rule, the Democrats' succession machinery and their regional political balancing long known as the party's "Boston-Austin axis" (or vice versa) helped lend stability.

On that list of the 10 longest-serving speakers, seven are Democrats. Most of them served in that long stretch when their party held the majority for four decades. The most recent Democrat, however, is Nancy Pelosi, still a House member and the House speaker emerita. She comes in at fifth on the longevity roster, having served one day shy of eight years from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.

Correction April 27, 2024

An earlier version of this story misspelled Barack Obama's first name.

• Mike Johnson