416 E WILSON ST | Property Record | Wisconsin Historical Society

Property Record

416 E WILSON ST

Architecture and History Inventory
416 E WILSON ST | Property Record | Wisconsin Historical Society
NAMES
Historic Name:CARDINAL HOTEL
Other Name:CARDINAL BAR
Contributing:
Reference Number:17062
PROPERTY LOCATION
Location (Address):416 E WILSON ST
County:Dane
City:Madison
Township/Village:
Unincorporated Community:
Town:
Range:
Direction:
Section:
Quarter Section:
Quarter/Quarter Section:
PROPERTY FEATURES
Year Built:1908
Additions: 1910
Survey Date:19822019
Historic Use:hotel/motel
Architectural Style:Neoclassical/Beaux Arts
Structural System:
Wall Material:Brick
Architect: Ferdinand Kronenberg
Other Buildings On Site:
Demolished?:No
Demolished Date:
NATIONAL AND STATE REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
National/State Register Listing Name: Cardinal Hotel
National Register Listing Date:9/2/1982
State Register Listing Date:1/1/1989
National Register Multiple Property Name:
NOTES
Additional Information:A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the State Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation.

The map code is 0709-133-1822-0.

Characterizing this five story building are round corners, stone quoins, keystones, a red brick exterior, a wrap around cornice, and a flat roof. The Cardinal Hotel is also part of the East Wilson Street Historic District (NRHP listed 4/3/86). Madison Historic Landmark: 10/25/1993

City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report:

Ricardo Alfredo Gonzalez was born in Camaguey, Cuba in 1946 and immigrated to Miami, Florida in 1960 in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. Ricardo moved to Oklahoma and then Texas in 1963. He attended college and moved to Ripon, Wisconsin in 1968 to work as a manager for the Green Giant canning company. Gonzalez ran, unsuccessfully, for a State Assembly seat in 1972.

After moving to Madison, the prior year to accept a position as an affirmative action officer, Ricardo Gonzalez took ownership of the struggling Cardinal Bar in 1974. Gonzalez quickly became part of Madison’s active and vocal Cuban community. He was also a gay man, active in Madison’s LGBTQ community, and intended to run Cardinal Bar as a gay bar. However, the Cardinal Bar soon became popular with a diverse clientele, including the LGBTQ and Latino/a communities and others.

In 1980, Gonzalez was the director of a local organization that cared for and educated Cuban immigrants who were directed to Fort McCoy and eventually settled in Madison. In 1981, a series of violent incidents occurred in the bar. Accompanied by damage from fire and flooding, these events nearly took the Cardinal Bar under. The bar closed briefly but re-opened again. The bar was remodeled in 1985 and 1986.

Gonzalez was politically active in the community, and, therefore, the bar became the informal headquarters of many political actions in Madison during the 1970s and 1980s. It was a venue for campaign fundraisers for gay and lesbian political candidates, as well as fundraisers for LGBTQ organizations and causes. Gonzalez was elected alderman of the 4th District in 1989, becoming the first gay Latino elected to public office in the United States. Gonzalez’s work as alderman focused on downtown revitalization, and he is credited with the creation of the Monona Terrace Convention Center. After forty-three years in operation, making it the longest-running gay bar in Madison’s history and likely the longest-running Latino-owned enterprise in Madison’s history, too, the Cardinal Bar closed in 2017 and was sold.
Bibliographic References:Date of construction source and historic name source: NRHP nomination form. Wisconsin State Journal 10/15/1998.
RECORD LOCATION
Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

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