Walk Historic Madison

The parking lot at the corner of Martin St and Garner St is the designated starting point for the tour.

The pavers in the pedestrian walkway portion of Garner St are in the form of the frontal view of a locomotive. This creates a unique opportunity to capture the locomotive image in the background of selfies taken here. 

This is the second drug store building, which was the Burton-Wise Drug Store, built ca. 1908. The store stayed in the Burton-Bradford family until 1975. Mr. Walton Hughes rented the building in 1925 and was in business until 1972. This is... Read more

202-204 Main Street, Noble Passage Interiors & Gifts Part of the Noble Passage business in the red brick portion that had been the James Henry Cainstore is the old address of 202 Main Street. The white structure to its left is the old s... Read more

202-204 Main Street, Noble Passage Interiors & Gifts Part of the Noble Passage business in the red brick portion that had been the James Henry Cainstore is the old address of 202 Main Street. The white structure to its left is the old s... Read more

Frank G. Hertzler, son of Dr. John Hertzler, operated a hardware store at this 208 Main Street site in partnership with Matthew Harvey Anderson, the banker who lived at 17 Front Street.  Frank built and resided in the house at 25 Front St... Read more

208 & 210 Main Street–Hertzler Hardware, True Grocery, Bandito Burrito Frank G. Hertzler, son of Dr. John Hertzler, operated a hardware store at this 208 Main Street site in partnership with Matthew Harvey Anderson, the banker who liv... Read more

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 ma... Read more

214-216 Main Street  This building was the location of Hughes Hardware= Western Auto for some 50 years.  The building was built in the early years of the 20th Century; as nearly as I know now, around1910. In its early years, it housed a g... Read more

Built just after the turn-of-the-century, the Thorson home displays all of the features repeated in many Madison homes. The Roy W. Thorson family lived in the home for many years. They were farmers. The home is a one and one-half story wit... Read more

The earliest grave denoted by an inscribed tombstone in the Old Section is that of Thomas B. Harris, with the death date given as October 5, 1869. Since the town was established in 1857, it is likely that the numerous unmarked grave depres... Read more

  John Henry Clift was deeded 40 acres from the US government, which would now be Highway 72 and Clift Farms. John Thomas Clifts son, frank built the house at 243 Mill Road for the principal of the local school, in 1916. Once the principal... Read more

  318 CHURCH STREET  Caudis H. Tribble and Ozell Hereford were married in Madison County in 1924. Caudis Tribble was a vice-president of the historic bank on the bluff in Huntsville during the years before the Great Depression.  He was f... Read more

Claudia H. Tribble and Ozell Hereford were married in Madison county in 1924. their house in Madison is recorded in tax records as having been constructed in 1939. When Gladys Mcfarlen True and her husband "Pud" moved to madison, the couple... Read more

Miss Hessie started teaching first grade in Madison, and Lorinda studied music at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia until 1914. Lorinda would marry Herbert Lafayette Thorton on January 21, 1920, shortly after he returned home from ser... Read more

The house was built by J. Wesley Taylor of Mobile and sold to Mr. J. Pryor Farley on November 19, 1910. The Sturdivants bought the house on August 7, 1943 from Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Gatlin. The Sears and Roebuck home is in the Victorian styl... Read more

307 Church Street The lot at 307 Church Street was initially part of Dr. Isaac Fox Deloney's 1868 purchase from the James Clemens estate of 41 acres north of what is now College Street. 307 Church Street was built in 1910 by Dea T. Thomas, ... Read more

The Gillespie-Wikle home was built in 1987 by William H. Gillespie. Thomas Logan Bradford and his wife Fannie Burton moved into the home in 1906. Tom was a pharmacist working with his future father-in-law, John Mullins Burton. In 1905 he bo... Read more

303 Church Street The Walton- Hughes home was built in 1922 by Mr. Thomas J riddle for his son Harry. Harry and his father worked as bankers and live next door to each other. Both riddle families left the Madison area in the 1920s.  In 192... Read more

This historic home has recently been extensively and impressively restored, remodeled, and enlarged by Teddy and Rikki Powell. It originally was built by Arthur Holding Lewis, a son of Meriwether A. Lewis of Triana. Lewis descendants say th... Read more

The original structure was erected in 1936 on the previous site of Madison Training School, which was chartered on February 25, 1895 and was the second organized school in Madison. Upon its completion the school consisted of eleven classr... Read more

205 Church Street This home was built in 1917 by Douglas Broyles a merchant/salesman in the town. The home is in the bungalow style with what is called a foursquare floor plan, which is four rooms forming a square, with no hallway. The orig... Read more

203 Church Street The Haney- Gillespie- Ellis home is one of the oldest homes on church street or in Madison for that matter. Built-in 1885 by Dr. Haney, a Madison physician, the home is an example of Victorian cottage architecture but it�... Read more

Madison United Methodist Church is at 127 Church Street in Madison, Alabama. The church was organized in 1828. A deed was issued in 1837 to the ''Trustees of the Methodist Church in U.S. of America" by Rowland and Elizabeth Gooch and was re... Read more

11 Arnett Daniel Hertzler was the youngest of the seven known children of Dr. John Hertzler and his wife AnnaGarber. Daniel was born in Ohio in 1868, coming with his family about 1869 to Madison County, where he married Ida Walker in 1914. ... Read more

15 Arnett  James Henry Cain built this home in the California bungalow style in 1931. It was a twin home to the one across the street at 14 Arnett St. The Roy Stone family lived in his home for a few years. He was chairman of the County Co... Read more

The picturesque house sitting on almost two acres west of Wall-TrianaHighway (Sullivan Street) and south of Brown’s Ferry Road is a unique landmark in Madison. Due to its historic design, it looks older than it is. The more than 4700 squa... Read more

Most of the land for Buttermilk Alley was deeded to the city by the Clay family with the stipulation that it be named "Clay Street." Later it was called "Hobson Street" before the name "Buttermilk Alley" became widely used. Mrs. Annie Mae H... Read more

19 FRONT STREET This mansion was built by James Edward Williams at 19 Front Street in the historic original downtown part of Madison. The impressive multi-story home with wrap-around porches on two levels proudly graces the Front Street lin... Read more

The house is located on original Lots 23 and 24, including possibly part of Lot 22 in the yard. Lot 24 was first purchased from James Clemens by carpenter Edmund “Ned” Martin on 5 March 1860, just about three months before Clemens’ d... Read more

Alda Florence (“Tiny”) Gormley Sturdivant's father James C. Gormley was the city clerk and railroad depot agent who about 1914 built the "ice house" -- a concrete structure beside the Roundhouse Replica on Front Street.  At that time,... Read more

This building is a replica of Madison's first city hall and is constructed on the original site of the Madison Depot. The original was built in the late 1800s while Capt. John Buchanan Floyd, a Confederate veteran was mayor. "The Roundhous... Read more

May 17, 1864 The largest engagement of the Civil War in Madison County was fought during a driving rainstorm here at the site of the railroad depot. Under the command of Col. Josiah Patterson, the Confederate forces (~1000 cavalry and a bat... Read more

    25 FRONT STREET, Hertzler–Vaughn House Lot 14 was purchased from James Clemens via the same deed as Lot 15 by Thomas Clay, acting as trustee for his wife and children. Today the home on this site is owned by Dennis and Joyce Vaughn,... Read more

The Veterans Memorial Park is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Church and Front Streets. The park was designed and constructed by Madison American Legion Post 229 in the spring and summer of 2001. The park is dedicated... Read more

  This structure was erected in 1954-5 as a multi-function third City Hall. The first City Hall was the original Roundhouse. The second was a two-story wooden building located at the southwestern corner of the intersection of Garner and Ma... Read more

The house at 12 Main stands on Lot 2 of the original town plat of James Clemens' land that became the City of Madison.  Lot 2 was first purchased at the October 5, 1868, Clemens estate auction by Hamilton G. Bradford.  The property chan... Read more

Clay House was the home of Sarah A. Clay, widow of Andrew J. Clay a private in the Molly Walton Guard and casualty of the Civil War. Sarah was also the daughter in law of the first Mayor of Madison Thomas J. Clay. Sarah Clay was listed as... Read more

104 Main Street  This building was reconstructed in the mid-1940s, following a fire that destroyed the store of Jim Williams.  The fire was thought to have been started by the restaurant in the store building, which also housed the origin... Read more

106 MAIN STREET, OPIE BALCH REALTY Elbert and Opie Balch operate a realty company in this building now, also containing an office for their son, Matthew J. Balch, Attorney at Law. The present building had been constructed as a post office i... Read more

108 Main Street currently houses Jacklyn's Keepsakes. The site is the former building that was the site of W. T. Garner's store in the 1890s. James "Jim" Bronaugh general merchandise store operated from this site circa 1910. By 1942, Mr.... Read more

Believed to be one of the oldest stores in Madison, the building was built circa 1859 and owned by Mr. George Washington Martin. Later, Mr. Hardage operated a saloon in the building which was one of two in Madison at that time. Sometime t... Read more