Dome on Bascom Hall Burns!
Spectators watch the dome burn on Bascom Hall, 1916 (Image #S07655)
Over 1000 students were in classes in Main Hall (sometimes called University Hall--it wouldn’t be named Bascom until 1920) on the morning of Tuesday, October 10, 1916, when a fire alarm went off at 10:25. The building was evacuated very quickly, without incident, and many students didn’t know there was an actual fire until they got outside and saw the dome burning. The Student Fire Brigade and faculty members helped fight the fire until the Madison fire department arrived, and other students helped carry furniture and documents out of the building.
Items carried out of the burning building (Image #S17548)
The wooden dome burned quickly and collapsed around 11:00 am. Fortunately, a metal holding tank had been built under the dome in 1876 to supply water to university buildings and the Capitol building. Although the tank was no longer in use, much of the dome collapsed into it, saving the rest of the building. Even though there was still much clean up to do, classes met as usual in the building the next day, except for a few rooms on the third floor. A cause for the fire was never determined. Ironically, the day before had been Fire Prevention Day in the public schools.
Bascom dome fire (Image #S02410)
Plans were drawn up to replace the dome, but the US entered WWI in April of 1917 and attention and resources were diverted elsewhere. Although replacing the dome came up several times over the years--as recently as the late 1970s--it obviously was never done, leaving us with the building we know today.
Bascom Hall, c. 1880, with original dome and portico (Image #S14702)
Bascom Hall, c. 1909, with remodeled portico (1895) and dome (1898) (Image #S00584.)
For more images of Bascom Hall through the years, see Univeristy Communications’ post on the fire.
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David Null, for the University Archives.
For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit archives.library.wisc.edu. On, Wisconsin!
