Located just a half-block off the Capitol Square, the site of Wisconsin’s State Capitol building, the two-story-tall, five-sided polygonal plan King Street Arcade Building represents a unique historic property type in Madison, it having been designed to house twenty-four smaller-sized rental spaces housing stores and offices that opened onto both of the two streets bordering the building and also into an interior two-story-tall court or arcade that is lit by a very large glassed skylight.

Today, of course, buildings and shopping malls using this concept are commonplace; however, in 1927, when the King Street Arcade was built, only the nation’s largest cities could boast of such buildings. The King Street Arcade Building was developed and owned by a member of Madison’s historically prominent Hobbins family and it is still in excellent, highly original condition today and is a fine example of the Twentieth Century Commercial Style and of the arcade building type. Additionally, the King Street Arcade is also one of just a few known Madison projects that were designed by Henry Charles Huart, an architect and engineer who practiced in Madison during the 1920s.