In Madison’s early days, immediately following the construction of the first capitol in 1844, there were few other public buildings in the city. Thus the capitol became, in the words of historian David Mollenhoff, “the most popular temporary house of worship in Madison’s history.”
Worship was scheduled in shifts:
- 10:30am – Episcopalians
- 2:30pm – Baptists
- 4:00pm – Presbyterians
Churches were eventually constructed for all of the major denominations of the day and their steeples show up in a skyline depiction of the 1850s (shown above):
- 1846 – Congregationalists
- 1849 – Methodists
- 1852 – Presbyterians
- 1853 – Baptists and Catholics
- 1855 – Episcopalians
Descendants of all of those congregations remain in Madison. But only Grace Episcopal Church remains in its original building on the capitol square.
Mollenhoff’s history of Madison’s formative years contains a gold mine of information on the development of the capital city. However the most popular temporary house of worship in Madison’s history may actually be the Sheraton Hotel on John Nolen Drive.
Madison Gospel Tabernacle (later Lake City Church, now City Church) met for a year at the Sheraton while building a new sanctuary on Buckeye Road in 1976. A few years later I counted a total of five local churches that had met at the Sheraton at one time or another, several at the same time if I remember correctly.