I was born in downtown Madison at the Kings Daughter's Hospital in 1962. (Yes, I'm turning 50 this summer.) We lived on Jefferson Street and then Cragmont before moving to 927 West Main. My family lived here until I finished the 5th grade at Lydia Middleton Elementary School. It was at this house that I learned to ride my first bike. Wish I had all those baseball cards I clothes pinned to my spokes. I often pass these places and my mind carries me back to my childhood. No doubt this is one of the main reasons I love running these streets.
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| Looking east down Main Street from Mulberry |
Our house on Main was a shotgun house, where one rooms leads straight through to another. You could shoot a shotgun from the front door and hit the back wall of the house. During the Civil War, there was an Army hospital down on the river where the golf course is now. After the war, the hospital buildings where sold and moved. Some of those buildings make up these "shotgun" houses found in the downtown area of Madison.
When I pass these houses, I think of the men that stayed here to recuperate after the savage fighting of the War Between the States. They probably would have approved of the use of these buildings to house families. My "shotgun" house still stands there on West Main. It is a memorial to men that served their country and a testimony to the happy memories of a young struggling family. Madison has its fair share of beautiful stately homes but I love seeing my old "shotgun" house. Run by there some day soon and you might see a young boy learning to ride his bike in the gangway. Wave to him, I'm sure you will get a wave and a smile in return.
