Madison history: How downtown became a National Historic Landmark

With the Nights Before Christmas Candlelight Tour of Homes coming up, it's a good time to look at the neighborhood the tour walks through. Downtown Madison isn't just old and pretty. It's a National Historic Landmark District, one of the highest honors a historic place can get in this country. The designation came on March 20, 2006. The district covers about 2,000 acres and more than 1,600 historic buildings in the Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate and other styles, built from about 1817 to 1939. It takes in homes, shops, churches, public buildings and old industrial sites, along with 19th-century roads and bridges that are still remarkably intact. Some of those buildings are tied to the Underground Railroad. When the Interior Department announced it, fewer than 2,500 places in the whole country carried the National Historic Landmark title. Acting Interior Secretary P. Lynn Scarlett came to Madison herself to announce it at a ceremony downtown. Getting there took real work. The nomination was prepared by the Westerly Group under Camille Fife, and the $45,000 project was paid for jointly by the National Park Service's Midwest Region, the Indiana DNR's Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, and the Jefferson County Commissioners' historic preservation fund. Historic Madison, Inc., founded in 1960 and one of the oldest preservation groups in America, gave the project office space and staff help. The research also widened the story. Besides the grand Federal-style buildings Madison was already known for, the nomination counted shotgun houses and 20th-century buildings, and it tied the town to national themes like architecture, community planning and the settling of the Old Northwest Territory. Madison was also one of the nation's first "Main Street" communities. You can see some of that history from the inside this season. The Candlelight Tour of Homes runs Nov. 27–28 and Dec. 4–5, 5 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and 3 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, with public historic sites, private homes and a local church in the landmark district: https://aroundmadison.com/events/44th-nights-before-christmas-candlelight-tour-of-homes Sources: National Park Service, "Madison Indiana: From 'Main Street' to National Historic Landmark" https://www.nps.gov/articles/madison-indiana-from-main-street-to-national-historic-landmark.htm ; U.S. Department of the Interior news release, April 11, 2006 https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/archive/news/archive/06_News_Releases/060411.htm Photo: Main Street, Madison, IN, by Warren LeMay, CC0 (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.