Historic Madison virtual walking tour puts Madison’s history in the palm of your hand

Editor’s note: We first took a look at this unique walking tour in 2021 during its unveiling. We decided to revisit this amazing tool for discovering and appreciating Madison’s rich past because this month is a perfect time to walk downtown Madison. Bailey Erickson and Finley Koswoski are pictured above in downtown Madison for the unveiling of the walking tour.

The Historic Madison Virtual Walking Tour might just be downtown Madison’s best kept secret.

Inspired by the Volksmarches of Germany, the tour started as an annual event and in-person walking tour around downtown and soon transformed into an accessible, educational resource tucked away, not on an alley or tree-lined street of downtown, but on a smartphone app!

While stationed in Germany, Rotary Club member and co-founder of local business Waffle- Bitte Bailey Erickson and her children would enjoy the historic and cultural tours, called Volksmarches, hosted by small towns on the weekends.

“Basically, a Volksmarch is a predesignated walk through a town. So, they had it all marked on the sidewalk and it would take you through the vineyards, and through the alleys, and by historic churches, and stuff like that,” recalled Erickson. “And it was so much fun. You got to learn about communities and about history and just got to know the people in the town.”

Upon arriving in Madison, Erickson was moved to create a Volksmarch to share the history and culture of Madison.

“When we moved to Madison, I thought it would be really neat because Madison has such a rich historic district and then it could bring attention to the business district,” said Erickson.

She approached the local Rotary Club who backed her idea, and in 2018, they hosted the first Volksmarch. The one-day event featured a two mile walking route around downtown. The route started on Martin Street and wound through Main Street, Church Street, and Maple Street.

Volunteer Girl Scouts dressed as characters in period costumes told the stories of the people and places of Madison’s past at more than 20 different stops. The Volksmarch returned for a second year in 2019. A third Volksmarch was planned for 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The pandemic didn’t stop the historic walking tours though. In fact, it prompted even more creativity. With the pandemic raging, Erickson pivoted and proposed the idea of an app.

“I asked Rotary, ‘Seeing as how we can’t get all these people together, wouldn’t it be a nice idea to make the Volksmarch into a smartphone app so that people could take their kids during COVID and take them on the walk?’” Erickson proposed.

Erickson and the Rotary Club partnered with app developer PocketSights, who gave Erickson and the Rotary Club use of their app.

A local Girl Scout, Finley Koswoski, seeking her Gold Award, along with retired engineer Dave Junghans recorded interviews of the different stops along the tour. Those interviews are paired with written blurbs that give information about the historic sites and figures of downtown at each stop. The app also includes historic photos contributed by Madison historian John Rankin. The entire process of assembling the tour on the app took 6 months, and the app debuted in 2021. Today, the app tour is 2 miles and about 3 hours long with a total of 42 stops.

Since its creation, the tour has been used by Madison City Schools as a field trip opportunity in state history curricula. Erickson is involved in crafting a similar tour for downtown Huntsville. Inspired by statistics from Madison City Schools that showed more than 20% of students live in poverty, she is also looking to offer guided, in-person tours to benefit those in poverty in the city of Madison.

Overall, Erickson says she hopes the virtual tour is able to educate people about Madison history and bring people to the downtown businesses.

“I hope that people will realize the magnitude of the history in downtown Madison. I know that they drive by and they see the historic signs in front of the homes but to really listen to the stories and the stories are sometimes read by relatives of people who built Madison, and my other hope is that the app will bring into those shops in downtown Madison to build up the business district,” said Erickson.

The virtual tour is free and available to download in the App Store through the PocketSights app and as of last month, the app just got even easier to access.

The city has unveiled new wayfinding signs around downtown that include QR codes which take you directly to the link to download the tour app, a feature of the new signs that Erickson worked with city planner Mary Beth Broeren to incorporate.

QR codes and updates are also available on the tour’s Facebook page, Walking Tour of Historic Madison.