Old-Madison Downtown and the River Front (2024)

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• Madison in The Valley video
• Economic Dev.
• Historic homes
• Artisans
• Indiana Wine Trail

• Tour Madison Indiana's favorite attractions, explore Madison's Old Main Street, Madison festivals, events and getaways. Visit our Winerys for a taste of handcrafted, award winning Indiana wines. Enjoy a great getaway to Madison Indiana "Americas Home Town"....where a far away feeling is close enough to touch.
  

  Certain places seem to exist mainly because someone has written about them. . .a place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image.

  

  Madison, in case you had not noticed, is in a valley.

  

  The valley makes all of Madison visible, laid out before you like a town in miniature. But it also makes Madison invisible, as you have no idea that Madison is there, waiting for you, until you turn the bend and head down the steep hill. Because Madison is in a valley, it doesn’t march towards you at a distance on the horizon. It appears magically out of nowhere.MORE click here

When you step into Old Madison, Madison IN... you step back more than 100 years in time, experiencing a past as much alive today as it was a century ago. Old Madison, Indiana was a time of adventure, an age of grandeur in the great steamboatin' era.

Old Madison is a fun place for families to visit. We have "great" old homes and buildings to see, antique shops, and great food. You can sleep in one of our B&B's, or take a romantic walk on our lighted riverfront. You can even hear the steam whistle blowing in the hollows! Are you listening?

See for yourself...

Madison is located in Southeastern Indiana on the north bank of the Ohio River at mile 557.6, 46 miles upstream from Louisville Ky, and 88 miles downstream from Cincinnati, Ohio.By highway, Madison is 90 miles from Indianapolis the state capitol, 55 miles from Louisville, KY. By air, our altitude is 817 feet above sea level on runway 21 or 3, with a heading of 210 or 030. Runway= 5000' x 75' feet - adequate for medium size jets and most turboprops. The VOR/DME and NDB approaches have been replaced with an RNAV approach (gps). website click here

You will find on this site a comprehensive informational tourist and visitor's guide to Madison, her business interests, her unsurpassed surrounding wonders, and her beauties of nature.

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Downtown will greet you with a pleasant surprise , unexpected finds and uncommon treasures.

I was downtown yesterday evening just before sunset. The Harvest moon was low in the east and beginning to rise over Madison. There was enough light still available to see the warm yellow and orange glow of the changing leaves of the many Downtown trees. I stopped and sat on the bench in front of Joe's old store. There were people on the sidewalks everywhere and the lights were on in the old stores and buildings. Shopping was apparent with many people carrying their gift bags.

As I sat there I could hear down the street guitar music and singing on the sidewalk. Cars were moving slow as if they were part of the sidewalk traffic, maybe just enjoying the fall evening mood. Down in front of the ice-cream store kids were sitting on the bench enjoying a scoop or two of their favorite ice cream. People were walking and holding hands a couple of young folks were obviously taking advantage of the hand holding.

It was obvious to me that Downtown was "alive". It was like looking down the street in an open story book. On down the way the Broadway Fountain Park was a hustle of people, kids playing with the water in the fountain and the fountain had that warm glow in the light with the yellows and oranges. The fountain urns had beautiful yellow and orange mum plants that matched the color of the tree leaves.

On down Broadway the hotel/tavern appeared to be jam packed with patrons. On the riverfront, the same thing as with Main Street folks were everywhere. Walking, talking holding hands some even brought their own lawn chairs looking and watching the river. I think they were maybe guarding us from a KY invasion.

I sat on the riverbank and watched a couple of lovers dancing by the rivers edge. I thought how lucky I am that I landed here in Madison. I could of have landed anywhere in this universe but somehow I am here. I am fortunate to be here to have a great family and many friends. Somehow I thought I was blessed with being put here.

Historical Overview