As part of our post-Christmas trip to Georgia to
see family, we were able to plan a short stopover in
the quaint town of Madison, Georgia, midway between
Augusta and Atlanta. We stayed at the historic James Madison
Inn and got to see quite a bit of this charming town during our
brief stay.
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| Here's the main entrance to the James Madison Inn. |
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| This view of The James Madison Inn is from the adjacent town park. It has 17 luxuriously furnished rooms and suites. There are some private apartments in some areas. |
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| This sitting room was across from the welcome desk. |
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| There was also an elevator, but we chose the stairs whenever we weren't carrying luggage. |
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| The way to our room filled us with anticipation. |
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| Our balcony overlooked the town park. |
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| We had gas logs in our fireplace and a large sitting area. |
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| The bathroom was spacious and first-class. |
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| The room exuded comfort. |
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| This was a great place to begin our Georgia trip. |
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| We would visit this breakfast area and common room the next morning. |
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| We had arrived mid-afternoon and it was warm enough for a walking tour of the area. First stop was the nearby town park. |
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| The park showed a lot of foresight by town planners. It is in the heart of Madison's business district, but was not sacrificed to developers. |
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| Sculptures like this add to the atmosphere. |
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| We could imagine the festive activities that must fill this place through the year. |
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| Judy and I love Free Little Libraries, but we had never seen a Free Little Art Gallery. Someone is always expanding on a good idea. |
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| We loved that the public was invited to exchange pieces to keep the art constantly evolving. Only the easels were to be left intact. |
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| After walking several downtown blocks, we were back near our inn and started down a greenway trail. It was a serendipitous walk. |
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| This is Round Bowl Spring. It is historic and is a focal point of the town's very founding. |
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| By serendipity, we encountered a lady who thought she recognized us. Indeed, she did-- she had seen us downtown a few minutes earlier! It turned out that her 95 year-old mother (still living with her) is a retired landscape architect who designed the very trail we were hiking. We had an enchanting and informative conversation/stroll with her and she took our picture for us. |
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| She showed us the three historic town cemeteries that come together near the railroad tracks. |
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| An interesting climbing tree along our route. |
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| More details about Round Bowl Spring and more. |
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| I'm not sure what type tree this mammoth leaf was from. |
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| The railroad didn't always come through Madison, but when it came it had a lasting impact on the town. |
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| As we returned from our stroll, we heard a switch engine on the nearby railroad track. Judy told me I'd better hurry or I'd miss it. I was off in a flash! |
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| This train gave me a private performance. It wasn't a through-train. It was switching some cars back and forth to the east and west of this overpass. I positioned myself underneath the trestle and hoped for a view that has been on my "bucket list", unofficially. My video was too long to post on Blogger, but I will post it on Facebook. It was quite thrilling to the young boy in me who has loved trains all my life. |
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| As darkness fell, we adored the view of the town park from our balcony once again. |
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| The park and all the rest of the town were still wonderfully lit for the Christmas season. This was taken from the balcony. |
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| Several hours later, this was sunrise from our balcony. |
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| We had a little time before heading down the road, so we got to know this town a little better. It has a rich Civil War connection. Several on-line sources explain why General Sherman did not burn this town on his march from Atlanta to Savannah, where little else was spared. Here's one version: "Legend has it that Madison's more than forty-five antebellum houses still stand because the U.S. senator Joshua Hill, an anti-secessionist who resigned his seat rather than defy the wishes of his pro-secessionist constituents, rode out to meet Sherman and pleaded that his hometown be spared." |
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| This old depot of the Georgia Railroad was also of great interest to me. My ancestor James Loyd's hotel, Washington Hall, was located where all the Atlanta railroads came to a junction. The zero milepost is on display at Underground Atlanta, which was once called Loyd Street. By the time Sherman burned Atlanta, James Loyd had been dead for more than a year and his well-known hotel was in the hands of others. James Loyd was a pioneer citizen of Atlanta, and Loyd Street was one of the six original streets. It is now called Central Avenue. |
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| Being only 68 miles from Atlanta, it was inevitable that Madison would be of strategic significance. Like my great-great grandfather's house, which I wrote about in "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace," it was destined NOT to burn. |
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| I've added this to threads of history that require more study from me. And there are many! |
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| The last site we checked on before leaving town was this famous old school building, which now houses the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center. The kind lady who guided us on our walk told us all about it, and she happens to live right next door to it in a house built by her great grandfather. Yes, history was everywhere in this charming town. Perhaps our path will lead us back sometime. |
