UPDATE, October 4, 2026: On September 8, the Common Council voted not to designate the Wonder Bar a landmark. The demolition permit has not been approved. The Plan Commission hearing on the permit, which this petition previously listed as August 31, is now Monday, October 5, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is virtual.

In 2021, the Plan Commission rejected demolition of the Wonder Bar because of its historical significance. In August 2026, the Landmarks Commission again found, by a unanimous vote, that the Wonder Bar has historic value. If the Plan Commission approves the permit, the Wonder Bar can be torn down, and it will be gone for good.

You can oppose the demolition in three ways:

• Register as Opposed. Use the City’s registration form, choose agenda item 222 E Olin Ave: 7, and select Opposed: https://www.cityofmadison.com/city-hall/committees/meeting-schedule/register?meeting=90591
• Register to speak, using the same form. Speaking is the most effective thing you can do. Each speaker has up to three minutes.
• Email the Plan Commission at pccomments@cityofmadison.com before 3:00 p.m. Monday, with “Legistar 93871, 222 East Olin Avenue, Opposed” in the subject line.

Watch the meeting online: https://media.cityofmadison.com/mediasite/showcase/madison-city-channel/channel/plan-commission

Around 1932, on what was then Highway 12 just outside the city limits, a brick roadhouse opened across from the old fairgrounds. Chicago gang money built it. Roger Touhy, the bootlegger whose organization fought Al Capone, financed it, and his brother Eddie ran it. For almost ninety years, Madisonians ate, drank, listened to music, and traded stories under its twin corner towers. That roadhouse is the Wonder Bar, 222 East Olin Avenue, and it still stands.

It may not stand much longer. The developer’s application to demolish the building is now before the City. Demolition is permanent.

This is not a choice between history and housing. The Wonder Bar sits on about 12% of the site. In 2022, the City approved a redevelopment plan for this same property that kept the building and built around it. The rest of the site has room for hundreds of new homes, consistent with the zoning code and the City’s adopted plans. Madison can have both.

The building looks tired because it has sat empty since 2020, not because it is beyond saving. Its brick and stone walls were built to last. Picture the finished project: the roadhouse restored and back in business at the front door of new housing, serving Madison the way it did for nine decades.

We, the undersigned, ask the Common Council to designate the Wonder Bar a City of Madison landmark. It meets the City’s first standard for designation: association with broad patterns of the cultural and social history of the community. We ask the Plan Commission to deny the demolition permit. We also ask the City and the development team to pursue the building’s adaptive reuse as part of the redevelopment.

In 2021, more than 3,000 people signed to save this building, and it was saved. The threat is back, and the 2021 signatures don’t carry over.

Add your name today.

The Historic Resource Nomination is public record, Legistar File 93894: https://madison.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9776642&GUID=93515515-4CE5-4C3A-ABE1-4A57ED458742