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Eleutherian College Classroom and Chapel Building; Broadway Fountain; Jefferson County Courthouse.
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Madison, Indiana

Architecture

North façade of the Lanier Mansion.

North façade of the Lanier Mansion.
From the collection of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites

The architecture of Madison, Indiana, is special. It is why people from all over the country choose to vacation in the town. Some even choose to relocate to this charming community. Madison’s heritage is clearly visible through its architecture. One sees a building and, through close examination, understands the era in which it was built, its original purpose, and the changes it has undergone over time. The buildings of Madison tell the town’s own true and exciting story. Many already-appealing towns have taken a turn into faux history, attempting to add charm to their communities through the construction of new buildings with historic stylings that try to look old. Madison, wisely, has remained authentic. If a building looks old or historic, then it probably is. Madison is a town without pretense, as it always has been. Just how Madison came to be home to so many notable early buildings is embedded deep in the town’s history, as is the story of how these buildings have been preserved.

After the War of 1812, settlers moved west as fast as the waters of the Ohio River could carry them. Madison found itself one of the budding cities along this busy waterway, though it was always a smaller town than nearby Cincinnati and Louisville. It was part of Indiana’s wealthiest county in 1835. This wealth was not measured in acres, as it often was in other parts of the State. Madison’s soil and terrain were ill-suited for farming. Rather, wealth came in the form of business owners and their enterprises. The success of these early Madison residents is reflected in the fine homes, businesses, and public buildings they built. The wealth of Madison’s early citizens allowed its architect-builders, like Francis Costigan, to replicate the high style architecture of the East with an attention to detail and exactness that was uncommon elsewhere in the Old Northwest Territory.

The architecture for which Madison is so noted dates from the antebellum period of the 1830s through the 1850s. Federal and Greek Revival styles, no doubt guided by publications like Minard Lefever’s Modern Builders’ Guide (1833) and Asher Benjamin’s The Architect (1830), are the most evident in the town. A high number of row houses and double houses were built in Madison during these early years, when it was assumed that the river and commerce, rather than the land, would provide occupation for town residents.

Image details (left to right): The Hendricks-Beall House, at 620 West Main Street, sports an elaborate, iron porch, National Park Service; Even this modest, one-story home features high-style Greek Revival details, like an elaborate entablature, Courtesy of Bradley Miller; A brick, Federal-style house in Madison, Courtesy of Bradley Miller.

Image details (left to right): The Hendricks-Beall House, at 620 West Main Street, sports an elaborate, iron porch, National Park Service; Even this modest, one-story home features high-style Greek Revival details, like an elaborate entablature, Courtesy of Bradley Miller; A brick, Federal-style house in Madison, Courtesy of Bradley Miller.

While many historic towns sit along the Ohio, few have been so well preserved as Madison. There are a number of reasons for this, the first reflecting the axiom, “poverty is the handmaiden of preservation.” Madison’s wealth and prominence declined sharply after the 1850s, when the expansion of the railroad network gave more towns access to railroad service. A brief economic resurgence in the late 19th century resulted in the construction of many new buildings and the addition of Italianate detailing on some of the Federal style buildings.

This early period of economic decline has, in part, contributed to the preservation of Madison's fine architecture. Had the town declined later, much more disruption of the historic fabric would likely have occurred. This is not to say that Madison has never dealt with demolition or detrimental modifications. One of its greatest losses was its Richardsonian Romanesque post office, which was demolished in 1963. Nationwide during this period, many regrettable demolitions took place. This time also saw the birth of a national preservation movement, which led to the enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966.

Historic preservation in Madison can be traced to the 1920s when Drusilla Cravens, granddaughter of banker James F.D. Lanier, restored many houses in Madison, including the Lanier Mansion, which opened to the public as a State Historic Site in 1926. Madison’s modern preservation movement began in 1960, with the organization of Historic Madison, Inc. (HMI), by John T. and Ann Windle. HMI now owns 17 of Madison’s notable historic properties. In 1976, the National Trust for Historic Preservation chose Madison as one of three cities to be part of its pilot Main Street program, which sought to keep historic Main Streets across the country viable places of commerce. In 1988, the Cornerstone Society, Madison’s second preservation group whose mission is advocacy and education, was formed. In 1973, the Madison Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places and on March 20, 2006, the Secretary of the Interior designated the Madison Historic District a National Historic Landmark.

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