Property Record
6102 Hammersley Road
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Mary Lou Munts House |
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| Reference Number: | 241093 |
| Location (Address): | 6102 Hammersley Road |
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| County: | Dane |
| City: | Madison |
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| Year Built: | 1965 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2019 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Contemporary |
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| Wall Material: | Wood |
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| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report: Mary Lou Rogers was born in 1924 in Chicago, where she spent her early life. She graduated from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, before receiving a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago, where she met Ray Munts whom she married in 1947. The Munts moved to Madison in the early 1950s. The Munts relocated to Washington D.C. for some time before returning to Madison around 1967 for Mary Lou to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, where she graduated with her law degree in 1976. She engaged in politics almost immediately, becoming active in local Democratic Party organizing, and advocating for peace negotiations in Vietnam. In 1972, Mary Lou Munts was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly from the 76th District, becoming one of four women in the Wisconsin Legislature at the time. She served six two-year terms, much of which was spent advocating for the passage of her Marital Property Reform bill, arguing that her bill would remove the "last vestiges of (sexual) discrimination in state law," by reforming inequities for married women who have no income and whose financial contributions to their household or family business are difficult to quantify. She was instrumental in the passing of Wisconsin's Marital Property Reform Act in 1986. In 1984, she was appointed to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, becoming the chair of the commission in 1986. In 1992, Munts was elected to the governing board of Common Cause, a national watchdog group advocating for minorities and the working poor in urban areas, based in Washington, D.C. Munts moved to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania in 2005. She died in 2013. |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |