The Dudgeon-Monroe area contains Monroe St, which was part of the route originally appointed by the territorial legislature for travelers from Green Bay, Madison and Monroe in 1836. Some of Madison, and Wisconsin's, earliest settlers traveled the road in covered wagons over the rough terrain left behind by glaciers long before. The Plough Inn, now called the Arbor Inn, was a roadhouse built in 1853 for people passing through to/from Monroe and Wiota among other places. The inn was also a place for soldiers to pass through on their way to and from Camp Randall during the Civil War. It continued as a tavern into the 20th century, and for a time earned a rowdy reputation, sparking the saying, “Plough in and stagger out.” In 1903 a number of plats were sold and annexed to Madison as part of the 10th ward, and in 1904 the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association created Edgewood Drive between the Edgewood campus and Lake Wingra. Wingra Park, on the shores of Lake Wingra, was once occupied by the three story Knickerbocker Ice House, built in 1895. In 1937 the city acquired the land and turned it into Wingra Park. Edgewood College was founded by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters in 1927 on 55 acres of land gifted to them in 1881 by Gov. Cadwallader Washburn. The college, founded as a junior college for women, grew into a senior four year college by 1940, and eventually became co-ed in 1970.
The Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association was founded in 1973 to ensure the quality of living in the neighborhood and to generate and sustain a spirit of neighborhood. The association currenlty has a memberhsip of 890 households (about seventy percent of households in the neighborhood) and 105 businesses, and extends from the University of Wisconsin Camp Randall stadium to the intersection of the railroad tracks and Odana Road. The association has a number of active committees involved in zoning and community activity planning.
