212 Main St.

212 Main Street, Western Auto-Hughes Hardware Store

The 1890 Hartford Insurance Company map of Madison shows that a furniture store operated by George Washington Martin was located at the site that is now 212 Main. George was born in the madison area, on the northeastern foot of Rainbow Mountain, in 1820, so he would have been 70 years old when he operated the furniture store in 1890 beside the John Winston Burton drugstore building that was at what is now 214 & 216 Main. George Martin lived on a one-acre lot immediately south of Martin Street, behind the original Lots 12 and 13 that he bought from James Clemens by a title bond issued February 13, 1857. These lots were re-surveyed for James Clemens and for George Washington Martin on October 21, 1856, indicating that George recognized that the town would grow rapidly. He therefore became Madison's first lot owner as he implemented plans to move his store from the Triana–New Haven area into the new railroad town. He subsequently added purchases all of the lots on the south side of Martin Street, plus Lot 54 on the east side end of the original plat of the town portion south of the railroad. Lot 54 included the location of the later-built furniture store at 212 Main Street. Pictures of George Washington Martin and his wife Nancy Leeman Martin late in life, as collected by descendant Joe Allen Brewer (now deceased) of Madison. Some current residents of Madison recall 212 Main as being the Western Auto Store, but before that it was for a time the store of Joe Balch, Sr., and his wife Clara, who ran the business with Joe Balch, Jr., after the passing of Joe Sr. Also, an earlier owner was Joe Pruitt, who lived at 204 Church Street from1910. Joe Balch had a store at 212 Main Street for a number of years. He is on the left in this 1962 photo-op with candidate for governor of the state, Ryan DeGraffenreid. George Walton (“Doc”) Hughes and his wife SarahParham are at right. The Hughes drugstore was at 200 Main Street, but Doc was a popular former mayor of the town and owner of the building. This is the 212 building of more recent times. It was part of the Hughes Hardware business as a western Auto store. Lately it has become the location of the Black Bear Brewery.