[3] After growing up on his parents' farm west of Madison, Charles Piper joined a grocery business in 1892 and eventually bought full control of it.

[3] The Piper brothers financed the $400,000 project largely through the sale of first mortgage bonds to local investors, including many farmers.

The building's framework is reinforced concrete, and interior walls are hollow clay tile - a fireproof design which was fairly new at the time.

"[4] However, the Madison Art League and City Planner John Nolan were concerned that someday tall buildings might hem in the capitol and obstruct the view of its beautiful and symbolic dome.

Similar debates were occurring in many cities at the dawn of the skyscraper era: Should we let the towering rectangles of modern commerce hide and overshadow our dear old civic institutions - our graceful government buildings and churches?

This time the rule was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the 90-foot limit remains to this day,[3] leaving the 284-foot Capitol dome prominent on Madison's skyline.

[5] The Belmont's designers, Harold Charles Balch and Grover Henry Lippert, were sons of Neillsville, Wisconsin, who took different paths into architecture but ended up in partnership with J. O. Gordon in Madison.