Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 84% of U.S. towns · #13 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 13 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1860.
The Madison post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 84% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Madison is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #13 of 638 in Florida. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
Few Florida towns list much on the Register (a typical Florida town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Madison’s 70.8 sits above most of its state (93% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 21 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1884Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereDannite H. Mays is born here
In the archiveView from cotton ginBuiltW.T. Davis Building is built
In the archivePortrait of Kathryn Stuart Lines Thornton in her wedding dress
In the archiveWreck of Georgia and Florida
Born herePatterson Dial is born here
In the archiveFlorida [Hamilton County - Sarasota County (part)]
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereLeGarrette Blount is born hereFrom Wikipedia’s history of Madison.
The territory now known as Madison County was ruled at various times by Spain and The United States of America. This area was developed for cotton plantations dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. After the Civil War and emancipation, many freedmen and their descendants stayed in the region, working as sharecroppers or tenant farmers.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
4 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Madison. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Madison.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Madison’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 423 and 3,737 people in every census since 1860.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Madison’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Madison post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Madison is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #13 of 638 in Florida. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Wardlaw-Smith House (listed 1972, the first), and 1 historic district, the Madison County Training School, with 13 contributing buildings. 21 historic buildings in all.
12% of Madison’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.0 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1974.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (8), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
![Florida [Hamilton County - Sarasota County (part)]](https://images.townratings.com/story/2186/2a78af18fd3f2fec5341-s.jpg)
1940
Date?
2025
2025
2004
