kids encyclopedia robot

Madison, Georgia facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Madison, Georgia
City of Madison
Morgan County Courthouse at Madison
Morgan County Courthouse at Madison
Location in Morgan County and the state of Georgia
Location in Morgan County and the state of Georgia
Madison, Georgia is located in the United States
Madison, Georgia
Madison, Georgia
Location in the United States
Country  United States
State Georgia
County Morgan
Incorporated December 12, 1809; 214 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(s)
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 3,979 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Morgan County and the site of the Morgan County Courthouse.

The Historic District of Madison 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.

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

Historical population
Census Pop.
1880 1,974
1890 2,131 8.0%
1900 1,992 −6.5%
1910 2,412 21.1%
1920 2,348 −2.7%
1930 1,966 −16.3%
1940 2,045 4.0%
1950 2,489 21.7%
1960 2,680 7.7%
1970 2,890 7.8%
1980 2,954 2.2%
1990 3,483 17.9%
2000 3,636 4.4%
2010 3,979 9.4%
2020 4,447 11.8%
U.S. Decennial Census

2020 census

Madison Racial Composition
Race Num. Perc.
White 2,215 49.81%
Black or African American 1,919 43.15%
Native American 9 0.2%
Asian 33 0.74%
Other/Mixed 133 2.99%
Hispanic or Latino 138 3.1%

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

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.

Education

The Morgan County School District is a charter school system that covers pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. The district has 210 full-time teachers and over 3,171 students, with a high school completion rate of 71%. The Superintendent is Dr. James Woodward whose background includes over 12 years serving the Georgia Department of Education in Agricultural and Career and Technical initiatives.

Notable people

  • Benny Andrews, nationally recognized as an artist, teacher, author, activist, and advocate of the arts, grew up in rural Morgan County.
  • 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.
  • 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) the Washington Redskins' running back, started playing American football in Madison.
  • Jamond Simms (July-2015–Present) took Morgan County High School to four 3A GHSA State Championship games, winning 2 of 4 in 2016 and 2019.
  • Joshua Hill (January 10, 1812 – March 6, 1891) was a United States Senator who lived in Madison. During the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman, a friend of Hill, did not burn Madison, Georgia, on his "March to the Sea".
  • Lancelot Johnston (1790–1866) resided in Madison. Johnston is credited with having perfected the process of extracting oil from cotton seed. He also invented the cotton seed huller.
  • 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., Georgia businessman, philanthropist and politician, operated his father's seed store on Main Street.
  • Seaborn Reese (November 28, 1846 – March 1, 1907), the American 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, the American 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

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Madison (Georgia) para niños

kids search engine
Madison, Georgia Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.