Madison, Georgia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Madison, Georgia
City
City of Madison
Morgan County Courthouse in Madison
Flag
Location in Morgan County and the state of Georgia
Madison, Georgia Location in the United States
Country	United States
State	Georgia
County	Morgan
Incorporated	December 12, 1809; 215 years ago (1809-12-12)
Named for	James Madison
Government
• Type	Mayor–Council
Area
• Total	8.86 sq mi (22.94 km2)
• Land	8.78 sq mi (22.75 km2)
• Water	0.07 sq mi (0.19 km2)
Elevation	679 ft (207 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	4,447
• Density	506.26/sq mi (195.48/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	30650
Area code(s)	706
FIPS code	13-49196
GNIS feature ID	0332303
Major airport	ATL

Madison is a city in Morgan County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta-Athens-Clarke-Sandy Springs combined statistical area. The population was 4,447 at the 2020 census, up from 3,979 in 2010. The city is the county seat of Morgan County and the site of the Morgan County Courthouse.

The Madison Historic District is one of the largest in the state. Many of the nearly 100 antebellum homes have been carefully restored. Bonar Hall is one of the first of the grand-style Federal homes built in Madison during the town's cotton-boom heyday from 1840 to 1860.

Budget Travel magazine voted Madison as one of the world's 16 most picturesque villages.

Madison is featured on Georgia's Antebellum Trail, and is designated as one of the state's Historic Heartland cities.

History

Madison was described in an early 19th century issue of White's Statistics of Georgia as "the most cultured and aristocratic town on the stagecoach route from Charleston to New Orleans." In a 1849 edition of White's Statistics of Georgia, the following was written about Madison: "In point of intelligence, refinement, and hospitality, this town acknowledges no superior." On March 12, 1866, the settlement, named for 4th United States president, James Madison, was incorporated.

Historic District of Madison, 2010.

While many believe that Sherman spared the town because it was too beautiful to burn during his March to the Sea, the truth is that Madison was home to pro-Union Congressman (later Senator) Joshua Hill. Hill had ties with General William Tecumseh Sherman's brother in the House of Representatives, so his sparing the town was more political than appreciation of its beauty. In 1895 Madison was audited as having in successful operation an oil mill with a capital of $35,000, a soap factory, a fertilizer factory, four steam ginneries, a mammoth compress, two carriage factories, a furniture factory, a grist and flouringmill, a bottling works, a distillery with a capacity of 120 gallons a day, an ice factory with a capital of $10,500, a canning factory with a capital of $10,000, a bank with a capital of $75,000, surplus $12,000, and a number of small industries operated by individual enterprise. Madison has one of the largest historic districts in the state of Georgia, and tourists from all over the world come to marvel at the antebellum architecture of the homes.

Geography

Madison is located at 33°35′17″N 83°28′21″W / 33.58806°N 83.47250°W / 33.58806; -83.47250 (33.588038, -83.472368). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.9 square miles (23 km²), of which, 8.9 square miles (23 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²) of it (0.45%) is water. Madison is situated on a high ridge which traverses Morgan County from the northeast to the southwest at an elevation of 760 feet.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 4,447 people, 1,625 households, and 1,121 families residing in the city.

Culture and parks

Madison is home to a handful of art galleries and museums. The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center (MMCC) provides a regional focus for performing and visual arts, plus permanent exhibits including a historical exhibit of Georgia's Piedmont region. The center occupies an elegantly restored 1895 Romanesque Revival building and is located in the heart of Madison's nationally registered historic district. Athens band R.E.M. recorded an MTV Unplugged session at the center in 1991, where they played "Losing My Religion" with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The Morgan County African American Museum is located in Madison.

Heritage Hall is maintained by the Morgan County Historical Society and has been restored for its architectural and historical significance. The original portion of Heritage Hall was built in 1811, and it received its Greek Revival façade around 1830. The house was a private residence until 1977.

The Madison Artists' Guild has more than 150 members and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and the encouragement of artistic endeavors in its members and the community through planned programs and regular gatherings.

There are five parks in the city limits. Wellington, Gilbert, Lambert, and Hill Park are designated for active play, whereas Town Park is designed for events and public gatherings.

Education

The Morgan County School District is a charter school system that covers pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of a primary school, an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. In 2023 the district has 230 full-time teachers and over 3,200 students. The High School graduation rate is 92%, which is greater than the Georgia average of 85%. Overall rankings for the Morgan County School District versus other school districts in Georgia include:

• Highest overall rank (Top 20%)
• Highest math proficiency (Top 10%)
• Highest reading/language arts proficiency (Top 20%)

More detailed statistics for individual schools include:

• Morgan County Elementary School Students have an average math proficiency score of 50% (versus the Georgia public elementary school average of 37%), and reading proficiency score of 46% (versus the 40% statewide average).
• Morgan County Middle School Students have an average math proficiency score of 44% (versus the Georgia public middle school average of 33%), and reading proficiency score of 49% (versus the 41% statewide average).
• Morgan County High School 39% students are proficient in math (versus the Georgia public high school average of 24%), and reading proficiency matches the 32% statewide average.

In popular culture

Significant parts of the movie Goosebumps (starring Jack Black) were filmed in Madison and at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center.

In Harry Turtledove's final Southern Victory novel Volume 11: In at the Death, Madison was the site of an important climax to the long running series.

I'll Fly Away (1991–93), an NBC series starring Sam Waterston as a southern lawyer at the dawn of the civil rights movement, was shot largely in historic Madison.

The historic mansion Bonar Hall was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's hospital in HBO's Warm Springs.

Scenes from My Cousin Vinny and Road Trip were filmed in Madison

The 1978 movie The Great Bank Hoax starring Ned Beatty, Richard Basehart and Charlene Dallas was filmed in Madison.

Portions of the TV series, October Road were filmed in Madison.

Portions of the TV series, The Originals', were filmed in Madison. The show was a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries.

Hissy Fit, a novel by Mary Kay Andrews, is set in Madison.

The main character of the webcomic, "Check, Please!" Eric "Bitty" Bittle is noted as being from Madison.

Notable people

• Benny Andrews, nationally recognized as an artist, teacher, author, activist, and advocate of the arts, grew up in rural Morgan County.
• George Andrews (1911–1996) was a self-taught artist commonly referred to as the "Dot Man". He fathered ten children, including painter Benny Andrews and novelist Raymond Andrews.
• Raymond Andrews (June 6, 1934 – November 25, 1991), African-American novelist, grew up in rural Morgan County.
• Tookie Brown (born November 22, 1995), professional basketball player
• George Gordon Crawford (August 24, 1869 – March 20, 1936), industrialist, was born in Madison.
• B. J. Elder (born September 4, 1982), former Georgia Tech and professional basketball player
• Monday Floyd, carpenter and Georgia Assemblyman who was harassed, threatened, and attacked by the Ku Klux Klan until he fled to Atlanta
• Oliver "Ollie" Hardy (born Norvell Hardy) (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957), comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, lived in Madison as a child where his mother owned a hotel called the Hardy House. The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center is a preserved Romanesque Revival schoolhouse housing the room where Oliver Hardy attended first grade.
• Albert T. Harris, World War II naval hero, was born in Madison.
• Allie Carroll Hart (1913–2003), director of the Georgia Department of Archives and History, 1964 to 1982
• Bill Hartman (William Coleman "Bill" Hartman, Jr., March 17, 1915 – March 16, 2006), Washington Redskins running back, started playing American football in Madison.
• Joshua Hill (January 10, 1812 – March 6, 1891), U.S. senator who lived in Madison. During the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman, a friend of Hill, did not burn Madison on his "March to the Sea".
• Eugenius Aristides Nisbet began his practice of law in Madison Georgia, before later being elected as one of the three initial justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1845.
• Brooks Pennington Jr., businessman, philanthropist and politician, operated his father's seed store on Main Street.
• Seaborn Reese (November 28, 1846 – March 1, 1907), politician, jurist and lawyer, was born in Madison. Reese filled the seat for Georgia in the United States House of Representatives during the 47th United States Congress. He was reelected to the 48th and 49th Congresses, serving from December 4, 1882, until March 3, 1887.
• Mark Schlabach, sports journalist, New York Times best-selling author and columnist and reporter for ESPN.com, lives in Madison.
• William Tappan Thompson, humorist and writer who co-founded the Savannah Morning News newspaper in the 1850s, lived in Madison in the 1840s and worked on the city's first newspaper, The Southern Miscellany.
• Jesse Triplett, lead guitarist with Collective Soul, was born in Madison and attended the Morgan County School System.
• Philip Lee Williams (born January 30, 1950), novelist, poet, and essayist, grew up in Madison.

See also

In Spanish: Madison (Georgia) para niños