Madison County Courthouse Historic District

Madison's town center in Madison County, Virginia, forms a historic district of about ninety-six buildings along Main Street (Route 231) and a side road, Route 1001. Its anchor is the brick courthouse of 1829-30, built by Malcolm Crawford, William B. Phillips and Richard Boulware, who had worked at the University of Virginia. The courthouse's first-story arcade was echoed in later commercial buildings such as the Arcade building, the Madison Drug Company building and the Health Department building. Nearby are an early tavern, an 1830s church, Greek Revival houses and churches with porches and doorways drawn from Asher Benjamin's pattern book, and later Eastlake, Italianate, bungalow and Colonial Revival buildings. Of the buildings, 67 contribute to the district's character and 29 do not. Because Route 29 was routed east of town and new growth occurred outside the town limits, the older streetscape, with its large yards and mature trees, has stayed largely intact.