North Hall was the university's first building. Built in 1851 in the woods and brush that would become Bascom Hill, this one building was the University of Wisconsin–Madison's first building. For the university's first four years this single structure was the UW, housing both dorm rooms and lecture halls.
John Muir resided in North Hall when he was a student from 1860 to 1863. In 1965 North Hall was listed as a National Historic Landmark, and it currently houses the offices of the political science faculty at the university. To understand how this spot began, remember that Madison was established as the capital of Wisconsin Territory in 1836.
By 1838 the wooded hill west of the capitol was being called "College Hill," though there was no college. The state legislature established the University of Wisconsin in 1848, and in February 1849 Dr. John Sterling commenced a preparatory school for twenty boys downtown in a room of the Madison Female Academy. Chancellor Lathrop, Regents Mills and Dean, and Milwaukee architect John F. Rague drew up a general plan for university buildings.
Notice that John Muir once lived within these very walls as a student.