[ By Jim Wagner
Contributors to this article include the Madison County Chamber of Commerce
Teenie Cave, and Kerri Post, VISIT FLORIDA. ]

For the adventurous traveler or history buff, Madison County offers a variety of unusual and exciting experiences, just a little off the beaten path. The county seat, the city of Madison, one hour northeast of Tallahassee, provides a sample of antebellum and neo-classical architecture that stands today in testament to the area's historical past.

Established in 1827, Madison County was named after James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and Father of the Constitution. The City of Madison played an important role in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, furnishing manpower and units to the Southern cause. Cotton planters settling in Madison hailed from the South Carolina lowcountry near Charleston, and the area became the commercial center for the surrounding agricultural region, raising sea island cotton as the primary crop. By the early 1900s shade tobacco had become a new and lucrative industry. Madison's wide streets and city parks are testimony that city planners of the day had a view towards urban planning and insight into future transportation requirements. As Madison grew in prominence, many significant buildings and homes were constructed.

Many of those structures survive today in the downtown district and surrounding neighborhoods. The recently restored courthouse in the center of Madison was constructed in 1912 and is one of only a handful of turn-of-the-century courthouses in Florida still in use today. The Wardlaw-Smith-Goza Conference Center, built in Classic Revival architectural style, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Building Survey. Built in 1860, it was used as a hospital after the Battle of Olustee and is now owned and operated by North Florida Community College, preserved and used as a conference center. The W.H. Dial House, one of the finest examples of the Italianate style in North Florida was built in 1880 for William H. Dial, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War.

In the heart of downtown Madison is T.J. Beggs & Company - a mercantile and funeral business owned by the same family for over a hundred years. On the first floor, the family operates a mercantile store. Upstairs, visitors discover an unusual collection in the Beggs Museum. In addition to a display of antique ledgers, office furniture and vintage clothing, are coffins, embalming paraphenalia and other artifacts related to the family funeral business. The coffinmaker's shop, next to the embalming display, remains completely intact. In the early years, the hammering of the coffinmaker heralded the dearly departed's demise to townspeople on the street below.

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