Thompson's Block

Madison, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Heritage registerNational Register of Historic Places↗

Thompson's Block is a three-story cream brick commercial building erected in 1868 a block west of Madison's capitol, designed to house Ole Thompson's grocery operation. Built by the Norwegian entrepreneur to replace an earlier wooden structure on East Main Street, the building exemplifies mid-nineteenth-century commercial Italianate architecture, featuring a cast-iron storefront with sandstone piers on its ground floor—a relatively new technology at the time that allowed greater visibility of merchandise and improved interior lighting. The upper floors display cream brick Italianate ornamentation including pilasters, segmental arched window hoods with limestone keystones, and decorative dentils, with windows set upon sandstone sills. Originally crowned with a bracketed cornice and centered pediment, the roofline was simplified in 1947. Thompson's Block served as a grocery store for decades under successive proprietors including John R. Regan, Clark and Mills, and the Nelson family until 1929, later functioning as a tavern and burlesque venue. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and the State Register in 1989, the building is recognized as a rare surviving example of Madison's mid-nineteenth-century commercial streetscape.