ABOUT HISTORIC MADISON

Valuing the past since 1960.

Historic Madison, Inc. is a nonprofit preservation organization serving Madison’s National Historic Landmark District through preservation, restoration, education, and community development.

Black-and-white aerial photograph of a river town, its streets, and a bridge. — An undated aerial of a river town and a bridge, from Historic Madison’s about page.

Eleven historic properties

HMI states that it owns and operates eleven historic properties in downtown Madison, including six museum properties. This website presents the eight properties named on HMI’s public list. It does not name the other properties in that count of eleven.

See the eight named properties

Madison’s setting

HMI’s about page describes a river town founded in 1809, built up by people who put wealth from trade, land, and milling into its buildings. Federal and Greek Revival buildings predominate. After river trade slowed in the Civil War, the 1937 flood destroyed the old riverfront, and wartime housing shortages led many households to divide nineteenth-century homes into apartments. A local historic-district ordinance passed in 1981. The downtown historic district received National Historic Landmark designation in 2006.

How HMI approaches preservation