In 2026 the UW Space Place will close, and MAS will lose its home of nearly 30 years. In its 90+ year history, the club has moved around a bit. Here is a recap of most of the locations used by the club for monthly meetings.
1935-36, The Early Years
After its formation in 1935, MAS relied on the resources of its members for meeting venues. Locations, for the most part, were members’ places of employment: The Madison Vocational School (later MATC), Madison General Hospital, the Forest Products Laboratory, and the Monona Golf Club clubhouse. Meetings generally took place on the third Wednesday of the month.
1936-1960, The Washburn Observatory
The Society’s deep connection with Dr. C. M. Huffer, professor of astronomy, led to an invitation for the club to use the classroom inside the Washburn Observatory for some of its regular meetings in late 1936. By the beginning of the 1937-38 academic year, that arrangement seems to have been finalized into a permanent home for the club. The only limitation was that the club’s use of the building not interfere with the Washburn tradition of public nights when the telescope and observatory were open to the public. Since those nights were (and still are) the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings, the club began meeting on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.
1960-1970, Sterling Hall
By the late 1950s, it was clear that Observatory Hill on the campus was no longer tenable for astronomical research. The city and campus had grown by leaps and bounds in the previous decades, virtually enveloping the Washburn Observatory in light pollution and smoky haze. In the fall of 1959, the Astronomy Department began moving most of their observing activities to their new observatory in Pine Bluff, WI, about 13 miles west of Madison. The department’s new digs on the top floor of Sterling Hall had abundant classroom space, and the department extended its relationship with MAS by allowing our meetings to take place there after Washburn transitioned to other purposes.
1970-1980, The Wilderness Years
MAS’s use of Sterling Hall classroom space came to an abrupt end in August of 1970 when a bomb exploded just outside the building, extensively damaging Sterling Hall, and killing a graduate student. For the next two decades, MAS was somewhat nomadic again and met in a variety of locations. For a time immediately after the bombing, Luther Memorial Church on University Ave was used. The group seems to have met occasionally at its own Oscar Mayer Observatory on the Bjorksten property in Fitchburg (present-day Promega), but the observatory’s meeting room was tiny, and parking options were very limited.
1980-1993, The Bank Years
Between 1980-84, the club secured space at the United Bank and Trust of Madison at 5574 Lacy Road.
In early 1984, we moved to the M&I Bank of Jamestown at 5250 Verona Rd (intersection of Williamsburg Way). This arrangement served the club until May of 1993.
1993-1996, Edgewood High School
From mid-1993 until 1996, the club met in a classroom at Edgewood High School on Monroe St. This space was made available by club secretary Bob Shannon, who taught chemistry there.
1996-2026, Space Place
Around 1990, even before the club had moved to Edgewood HS, the University Space Astronomy Lab (SAL) opened a new outreach facility called Space Place. To house the new facility, the UW leased the old Ponderosa Steakhouse at 1605 S. Park. The “old Space Place” housed a museum exhibit space highlighting the UW’s significant role in space and astronomy, and had a small meeting room in the back for SAL departmental outreach efforts. Though there was much cooperation and collaboration between MAS and Space Place (Jim Lattis assumed the directorship in 1995), nobody seems to have thought of Space Place as a permanent meeting location for the club until much later.
Our first record of a regular meeting (not a joint outreach event) there was the annual holiday/solstice party in December of 1996. The first record I can find of a regular monthly meeting being held there is May of 1998, when UW physics professor Bernice Durand gave a talk on Einstein’s theory of relativity.
I was at this meeting, but am pretty sure it was not the first time we used it for a regular monthly meeting. But I can find no records earlier than this one. (Our January 1998 newsletter notes that the March regular meeting would be held at a location TBA. There was no April 1998 meeting due to the banquet).
In the summer of 2005, Space Place moved less than a mile south on Park St to its current location in the Villager Mall, and MAS moved along with it. The current location in the Villager has been our home for nearly 20 years, and the only MAS home most members have ever known.
We’re going to miss it!
(posted by John Rummel, December 2026)
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