Madison, the first week of March, 1961
Madison in the Sixties
The Spring primary on March 7 brings double-barreled bad news for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace auditorium and exhibition hall.
In the morning, construction bids are opened for the ambitious project which the city approved in 1954, but which opponents have delayed since then through litigation and legislation. And it’s quickly evident that their plan to kill the project through economic pressures was a good one, as more than six years of inflation knocked the budget completely out of whack.
In November 1954, city voters approved $4 million in bonds for the project which the world-famous architect said would marry the city and the lake. The city parking utility later added $1.5 million, for a total budget of five and a half million, and the project finally went out to bid earlier this year.
Madison in the Sixties – January 20, 1961
In 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy didn’t carry Madison in the Democratic presidential primary or Wisconsin in the general election. But his candidacy still had a profound local impact.
His primary campaign against Sen. Hubert Humphrey created enough Badgerland bitterness to last for years, even damaging the federal judiciary. And his election utterly transformed local politics, and ended the effort to build Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace auditorium and convention center.
Kennedy’s advisors didn’t want him entering the primary against the friendly liberal from neighboring Minnesota, who had two extra sectors of support. Some feared the Pope would unduly influence the Catholic Kennedy, while others who actually supported two-time nominee Adlai Stevenson were trying to block Kennedy from a first-ballot nomination at the national convention, hoping delegates would then draft the former Illinois Governor.