Madison - beloved town, place of contrasts: Broad sweep of rocky headland and wave-washed beach, matched by the ancient rocks that tumble Ninevah's hemlock dark waters to the north. Boggy Coan Pond harbors cranberries in their season while from Buck Hill's lofty height the Sound glistens in the sun. At rushing Iron Stream recollections of ancient industries call to us beside the handsome new houses of Genessee on Race Hill Road.
On Main Street, the constant bustle of business. Matronly Scranton Library surveys the scene as shoppers pursue their quests.
At the shore Rock-bound Tuxis Island lies quietly amid the roiling waters of the Sound while her namesake pond mirrors the ever-changing downtown scene.
From Summer Hill to Huzzle Guzzle, from Cole's Farm Stand to Stop and Shop, from the venerable Grave House to the condominiums nestled beside Hummers Pond, she is a place of contrasts, our beloved town, our Madison.
In 1650 Nicholas Munger established a homestead on the Neck River. He was the first to settle in the area of Guilford that was to become known as East Guilford. The lands beyond the East River were the frontier of the new settlement. Residents were encouraged to take up these lands and establish homesteads.
By 1707 the East Guilford farmers had become so numerous they were granted permission to build their own church and Reverend Jonathan Hart, the first graduate of Yale University came to minister to them. The settlement continued to grow and in 1826 the residents successfully petitioned the State of Connecticut for permission to become a separate town. In 1900, Madison was a town of 1600 souls. It had a proud heritage in ship building and agriculture.
As the new century dawned there was a fine new Memorial Hall, a library, a growing school system including Hand Academy, and an active citizenry. The first of many subdivision maps had been filed. Madison residents were beginning to sense they had something unique -open land near the sea and lovely beaches. Just the place for city dwellers seeking respite from their cares. When Mrs. Dexter built the first summer house on Middle Beach in 1867, the locals thought her balmy. They could not know that their "worthless waterfront" would become a Mecca for the city-bound seeking sun and solitude.
J. Myron Hull, real estate and land developer, wrote in 1904 that Madison was: "an ideal place to spend the hot months; a town that is worthy of the attention of every person contemplating spending the summer away from the heat of the city or inland town."
The summer resident and the tourist soon captured the interest of local property owners. Chicken coops were transformed into tourist cabins, the farm lands of Middle Beach, Seaview, Buffalo Bay, and Webster Point became magnets for those with money to afford a summer home.
For decades the streams and hills to the north of the railroad tracks lay largely untouched while the shoreline echoed with the sound of hammer and saw.
But on January 2, 1958 the character of Madison was changed irrevocably. The Connecticut Turnpike opened. A great swath of newly laid concrete swept from east to west across the town underlain by the remains of homes and farms.
By century's end the population had increased tenfold from 1600 to 16,000; from two schools in 1921 to six in 1998; from a school population of 200 in 1900 to more than 3,000 one hundred years later.
The journey through the century was alternately quiet and tumultuous. Flurries of change followed periods of calm. A citizenry of farmers and fisherman content with their town gave way to men and women of the world who sought a life style better than that their parents had known. The years brought the modern conveniences of electricity, indoor plumbing, the trolley, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, radio, TV, and the computer.
Madison today retains echoes of its past as a seaside town reliant on agriculture and a burgeoning tourist industry. The commercial district centered around the Boston Post Road-Wall Street area is quite different from the elm shaded group of small stores which clustered there in 1900. The coming of I-95 removed the glut of truck traffic from Main Street and allowed the tourist and commercial traveler to speed past the town. The collective sigh of relief breathed when the turnpike opened was short-lived, however, and the desire to bring the tourist back to town has been rekindled. On the eve of the millennium Madison once more seeks to expand its offerings to the world.
The Chamber of Commerce in its 1997 brochure, "Main Street and more", seeks to lure the wily tourist with these words:
Welcome to Madison our historic, shoreline community with its wonderful mix of distinctive shops, charming restaurants, cafes and inns. You will find antiques, art, books, crafts, fashion, food and wine, gifts, jewelry, Main Street and more
During the twentieth century the character of Madison was reshaped by economic, social and political forces. Whereas the newcomer once sought a few weeks of relief from his urban cares, he now seeks a safe, small town setting in which to raise a family. Madison has shed small-town skin and metamorphosed into a sophisticated suburban community, its new residents drawn by village charm, fine old houses, and a rich New England heritage.
As ever, the past is tucked away in the woods and fields. Amid the developments, there pockets of solitude and memory. The Genessee Colony in North Madison bears testimony to the hardiness of the early settlers who desired land to settle and raise families and crops. Remnants of abandoned charcoal pits recall long-vanished industries. On the banks of the Hammonassett River, the trout fisherman casts his line in the shadow of a decaying mill dam.
Gaunt pilings protrude from the East River recalling the Shoreline Electric Railway; from an abandoned cellar hole on Neck Road, to the lovely old homes along the Post Road we are surrounded by the keepsakes of our heritage.
In 1957 The Shore Line times noted that the buildable land south of the railroad tracks was rapidly filling up and speculated: "there are many attractive home sites in the hills north of the railway....perhaps newcomers from New Haven, Middletown and points further off will prefer the hills to the beaches". Newcomers did, and therein lay the promise and the future of Madison. The people came and the town grew. And will continue to grow for at this writing 1500 building lots remain.
Would Talcott Bradley, who sold the first lot to Mrs. Dexter from Michigan, marvel at what our town has become or would he wish Mrs. Dexter had never fallen in love with Madison?