Street names reveal Madison history
Since the late 1800s, Madison has named its roads, streets and highways for an assortment of people and anecdotes.
Buttermilk Alley is a narrow lane running between Front and Arnett streets. Circa 1900, the alley gave safe haven for sweethearts to take a walk at dusk and hold hands. Mrs. Katie, an African-American woman who worked for Dr. Kyser on Front Street, sat on her porch and kept a watchful eye for the youth’s safety.
Longtime residents also credit Buttermilk Alley’s name to food handouts from Front Street residents to hungry hobos riding on the train.
Outside Little Libby’s Catfish and Diner, Lime Quarry Road runs parallel to fast-food row on Madison Boulevard. The pavement now ends but formerly extended eastward past present-day I-565.
Lime Quarry Road ran to a spring near the rock quarry, now Madison Aquatic Park. Young couples strolled down Lime Quarry Road, welcoming a quiet, romantic picnic together near the natural spring.
Church Street earned its name from congregations north of the railroad and Main Street: Presbyterians at Arnett and Sullivan streets, Episcopals on College Street and a Christian church on Maple Street.
Since 1873, Church Street has been home to Madison United Methodist Church, originally Madison Methodist Episcopal. Constructed in 1838, the building was rolled on logs from its original site at Old Madison Pike and Hughes Road.
Mill Road extends from Hughes Road to its dead-end at County Line Road. In the early 1900s, William Russell’s grist mill stood four miles west of Sullivan Street. An adjacent pond supplied waterpower to turn the wheel and grind corn. The old mill led to the naming of Mill Creek, Mill Creek Crossing neighborhood and Mill Creek Elementary School.
Browns Ferry Road is an odd name in a land-locked area. Driving west from Madison, the street name switches from Old Madison Pike at Hughes Road, jags through Madison neighborhoods, across swamps in Limestone County, past the Tanner community and leads to the Tennessee River and Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. A ferry once operated at the river.
Madison Station Historical Preservation Society researched this material.
