The Town of Madison is the county seat and commercial center. It is near the center of the county, near the intersections of the three major highways service the area – U.S. Route 29, State Route 230, and State Route 231. There are about 300 residents in the town whose north-south boundaries parallel Main Street.
On December 4, 1792, the General Assembly passed the act forming Madison County from Culpeper County, which became effective on May 1, 1793. The new county was named in honor of James Madison, then an opposition leader in Congress who had played a major role in the adoption of the Federal Constitution.
In June 1793, the gentlemen justices of the Madison County Court gave consideration to the establishment of a permanent county courthouse. Favoring a site conveniently located in the center of the county, the court decided to purchase a two-acre lot, which was part of a420-acre tract known as Finnell’ Old Field. This field was situated on the ridge of Courthouse Mountain which runs southwest to northeast and which affords the Town spectacular views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and northwest.
On January 6, 1800, in response to a petition signed one month earlier by one hundred citizens of the county, the General Assembly established a town at the courthouse on fifty (50) acres of land. Calling the new town Madison, after the new county of which it became the county seat, the Legislature ordered all of the fifty acres to be laid off in lots with convenient streets. The Legislature also appointed seven (7) men, including two (2) county justices, as its first trustees. The trustees were empowered to make rules for the regular building of houses and to settle all boundary disputes.
A walk down Main Street in the Town of Madison
