James Franklin Doughty Lanier was one of Madison’s pioneers. Lanier’s good fortune in business allowed him to hire Madison architect Francis Costigan to design and build for him the grandest residence ever imagined in Madison. The home was built on the same riverfront property where he had lived with his family since the 1820s. The Lanier Mansion was completed and occupied in 1844. Following the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, in 1846, Lanier married his second wife, Margaret Mary McClure Lanier in 1848, but remained in residence in Madison for only a few more years.