Madison’s historic district, a National Historic Landmark, takes in 1,666 buildings
More historic than 97% of U.S. towns · #35 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them 3 National Historic Landmarks and a historic district with 1,666 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1840.
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1812.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Madison’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Madison is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #35 of 593 in Indiana. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Madison’s overall grade.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Madison’s 1,366 sits above most of its state (99% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 1,670 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 points). Two sources give 1810.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 →
What stands out about Madison’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Madison, building by building, 1886–1911
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.
Madison was laid out and platted in 1810, and the first lots were sold in 1811 by John Paul. It had busy early years due to heavy river traffic and its position as an entry point into the Indiana Territory along the historic Old Michigan Road. Madison's location across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state, made it an important location on the Underground Railroad, which worked to free fugitive slaves. George DeBaptiste's barbershop in town became a nerve center of the local group. By 1850, Madison was the third-largest city in Indiana (after New Albany and Indianapolis), and among the 100 largest cities in the U.S.
Passages that mention Madison, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Madison County, Ohio1915 · page 182Read the page →
Read the text
Florence, the other town in Paint township, is situated on the Pennsylvania railroad and is the only station on that road west of London in Madison county. It was never platted and at present consists of only a few houses, an elevator, a general store and the Pennsylvania railroad station and freight depot.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Madison County, Ohio1915 · page 226Read the page →
Read the text
On December 1, 1869, the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company leased of the Little Miami Railroad Company its railroad and its right to the Columbus & Xenia and other roads. At the time this railroad was built, the citizens of Madison county voted twenty thousand dollars towards its construction. When this latter railroad company came into possession of the stocks of the Little Miami Railroad Company it subsequently proposed to take from the county fourteen thousand dollars of said stock, leaving the county with but six thousand dollars of the agreed stock. The road passes through Madison county from Columbus, in a southwest direction, and runs
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 19121912 · page 31Read the page →
Read the text
Cahokia, together with the settlements along the Wabash and at Fort Massac. In addition there were several hundred settlers south of the present north line of Madison, who were not located in villages. This was especially the case in Madison, where there was no town except the flourishing settlement at Goshen.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Madison, 1810 to 1994
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1810, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Madison’s post office opened in 1812, and the census of 1840 counted 3,798 people here.
How does Madison rank for history?
Madison is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns, #35 of 593 in Indiana. 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.
What is on the National Register in Madison?
5 listings, 3 of them National Historic Landmarks: 4 buildings, among them the Charles L. Shrewsbury House (a National Historic Landmark since 1994), and 1 historic district, the Madison Historic District, with 1,666 contributing buildings. 1,670 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Madison?
32% of Madison’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (13), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
★ Landmark
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