302 Church Street Lewis - Wann - Powell Home

This historic home has recently been extensively and impressively restored, remodeled, and enlarged by Teddy and Rikki Powell. It originally was built by Arthur Holding Lewis, a son of Meriwether A. Lewis of Triana. Lewis descendants say that Meriwether owned three steamboats to carry cotton to market from his plantation. It is believed that beams from one of the salvaged river boats formed the foundation of this house. Arthur Lewis had a store at the 104 Main Street location that is now a parking lot. Arthur married Mattie Cartwright after a short, but strange, courtship, and their family includes ties to the local Humphrey and Spencer families, as well as ancestral lineage back to George Washington's grandfather.  There are definite indications that this home was initially constructed by A. H. Lewis in 1873, possibly as a condition of getting Mattie to marry him.

The Lewis home eventually was owned by Fred and Ora B. Wann. Fred worked as a clerk in the post

office, while Ora was the postmaster for many years. To the right is an older photo of the house from the Historical Society files.

301 Church Street

Professor T. G. Riddle, principal of Madison School (the old two-story building), built the Hughes home in 1910. He owned a horse which he kept in the back yard. The concrete watering trough is still behind the home. The family played tennis in the back yard; the lot was enclosed by a board fence.

Professor Riddle and his son, Harry, who owned the home next door on the north side (the Walton-Hughes home), were in the banking business together. Professor Riddle left Madison in the 1920's.  At that time, a Mrs. Merts from Huntsville purchased the home and rented it to various tenants. She later sold the home to Mrs. Etta Lewis who was the mother of Mrs. Gordon "Mattie Belle" Hughes. The home and lot sold for three thousand dollars.

The present owners are Don Hughes Spencer and his wife, Patsy. Mr. Spencer is the great-grandson of Mrs. Etta Lewis, the grandson of Mattie Belle and Gordon Hughes and the son of Barbara Ann Hughes and Donald Spencer.

207 Church Street - Hertzler Home Site

207 Church Street

The present home at 207 Church Street was built in 1960 according to tax records.  Originally, this home site belonged to Dr. John Huber Hertzler and his wife Anna Garber. 
Dr. Hertzler and Anna moved, along with their children, from Ohio to Madison circa 1869. Here they built the ornate house shown at the right. Hertzler also acquired extensive lands of what is today the northwestern portion of Redstone Arsenal, where he built another equally large and impressive house, living in both as the inclination occurred.  Dr. John's son Frank Hertzler built the house at 25 Front Street and lived there during his adult life, while also owning arsenal lands.

Hertzler Home

208 Church Street May - Howard Hughes Home

Roy and his wife Ada purchased land adjoining both Cora Mae and Nina Garrett on the east side of Church Street in 1918-1919. Since the house at the right is recorded in the tax records as having been constructed in 1918, Roy may have built it. However, later in 1919 he and Ada sold their land to Ora B. Wann and to John Mullins Burton, so they were not here long. Yet, today part of the area along Church Street and Mill Road is called the May Development on court plats.

Our local Howard Hughes and his wife Lorene Howard (married in 1931) owned this house. 33
Howard died in 1971; Lorene passed away in 1999. Today's owner is Harriet Hess Polskoy.

206 Church Street Humphrey Home

This was the home of Cora Mae Lewis and her husband James Hermon Humphrey,
a son of James Alexander Humphrey. The tax records show that the house was built in 1898,
which is the same year as of their marriage. The home may have been built as a condition of the marriage of Cora Mae to James.

Cora Mae was a daughter of Arthur H. Lewis, who married Mattie Cartwright after a rather

Cora Mae

strange courtship. Mattie was a daughter of Hezekiah Bradley Cartwright, son of area pioneer John Cartwright. Cora Mae's lineage went through Arthur Lewis to the Meriwether A. Lewis of Triana and has been traced back to the grandfather of George Washington. 

Cora Mae and her husband James, sold land adjoining their residential home site to Roy and Ada L. May in 1918. This land would later become the home site of 208 Church Street.

205 Church Street - Broyles- Sturdivant Home

This home was built in 1917 by Douglas C. Broyles, a merchant I salesman in the town. The home is
in the bungalow style with what is called a four square floor plan , which is four rooms forming a square, with no hallway.

The original home had one bedroom. Prior to the 1950's, two small rooms were added to the back.
The home features ten foot ceilings, original heart pine floors, and rosettes at the top corners of the
windows and doors. It has two fireplaces with a third said to be hidden behind the dining room's built-in hutch and buffet.

The home has been in the Sturdivant family since the 1950's. It was home to Charles
and Kim Sturdivant for several years. Charles is the son of Jim Sturdivant and grandson
of Claude and Tiny Sturdivant who lived at 308 Church Street.

204 Church Street - Pruitt - Dublin Home

The Pruitt- Dublin house was built by Joe Pruitt around 1910. It was sold to a Mr. Fisk of Fayetteville, Tennessee. He moved back to Fayetteville and sold the place to Howard Dublin in 1937. Howard rented the house to others while he lived in Greenbrier, Alabama. Howard and his wife Sallie Williams Dublin moved into the house in 1942. Howard died there in 1972, while Sallie lived in the house until her passing in 1994.

Howard was Mayor of Madison from 1949 to 1950. He was a brother of Clyde Dublin, namesake of Dublin Park.  They were nephews of Jim Williams of 19 Front Street. They were also descendants of Roland and Elizabeth Gooch, who had a daughter (Eleanor) that married James Dublin. Their son Westley M. Dublin had a son, Westley Lee Dublin, who was the father of Clyde and Howard. It was Roland and Elizabeth Gooch who deeded land in 1838 for the Methodist Church on Church Street when it was located at Old Madison Pike and Hughes Road.

The Pruitt- Dublin House burned in 2005. It may have been the site where old timers of the town told of a little girl drowning in a cistern across from the church in the 1920's or 1930's.