Annotated BibliographyE.G. YarnetskyL524 Information Sources and Service3 December 2005Dr. Joyce Taylor
The first railroad in Indiana was built at Madison in 1836 to ship goods coming up and downriver into the Indiana interior. The railroad fueled the growth of cities to our north not the leasta city named Indianapolis. However, by the end of the century, railroads had surpassed theriverboat as America’s primary means of shipping and that transition left Madison a simpleregional farming center with little other reason for existing. A decades long slumbercommenced. As Madison slept and its population dwindled, the old federal, Greek revival,Italianate and Victorian homes of downtown Madison remained standing, largely unchanged because no one had the money to change them or build anew. As the 1960s rolled around, people were fleeing cities and industries were fleeing the rust belt north. Leaders in these cities hoped tearing down the city’s old fabric and building parkinglots would woo the newfound automobile society back downtown. Madison too knocked down afew buildings for parking lots, but soon city realized there was something more important than“urban renewal”– preserving the history and fabric of the community as a tool for the city’sfuture success.The rebound has been slow, many parts of downtown Madison have only emerged from what many people consider slums in the past 15 years. But due to the combination of economicmummification and preservation foresight, Madison now has a large, beautiful historic districtlargely unparalleled in the Midwest if not the nation. When the curator of Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum first visited Madison heexclaimed “put a fence around the entire town and don’t let anyone touch anything in it.”Preserving the amazing historic fabric of downtown Madison is crucial to the city’s future.However, unlike Greenfield Village, Madison is a real community with people wanting to live inreal homes. As such, it is important to get information into the community as to the value of preserving these old homes and specifically
how
to preserve their homes for future generations
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