Madison Historic District

Madison, Georgia, has a district of roughly 250 acres that holds the core of its nineteenth-century residential neighborhoods. Tree-lined streets such as Main, Old Post Road, Academy, Jefferson and Washington hold houses ranging from a frame servant's quarters to Greek Revival cottages, columned mansions and sprawling Victorian homes. Notable examples include Boxwood (1851), the Stokes McHenry House, Bonar Hall, the Nathan Hunter House and several churches, among them an 1840 red brick Episcopal church. The district reflects the wealth that cotton planters and merchants built after settling in the area, along with their investment in schools, including a women's college founded in 1849, and the arrival of the Georgia Railroad. A Federal soldier described the town as the prettiest village he had seen in the state, and Madison was spared from Sherman's destruction after a plea from Senator Joshua Hill. A later addition recognized the Bearden Chambers House, a Victorian cottage of about 1850.