Built in 1851 in the woods and brush that would become Bascom Hill, this one building was the UW for its first four years, housing both dorm rooms and lecture halls.

In February 1849, under the mantle of the new university, Dr. John Sterling commenced a preparatory school for twenty boys downtown in a room of the Madison Female Academy.

[8] Meanwhile, Chancellor Lathrop, Regents Mills and Dean, and Milwaukee architect John F. Rague drew up a general plan for university buildings.

"[9] Rather than construct the main edifice (classrooms and offices) first, the university built the dormitory North Hall in 1851.

[10] During the Civil War stoves were put in each room of North Hall and students had to fuel them, often with wood from the forest nearby.

At some point a mess was set up in the first floor of North Hall, where students could eat for about eighty cents a week.

It has since housed the pharmacy school, German and Scandinavian studies, math, the Madison Weather Bureau, and the political science department.

Windows and doors have plain lintel blocks and eight interior chimneys protrude from the roof.

It did this by developing the agricultural extension courses, which helped farmers be more productive and safer, and by providing expertise to government during the Progressive Era,[3] advising on such innovations as primary elections, workers' compensation, and progressive taxation.