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Madison Information

madison-intro

Welcome to the Rose City! Although it’s hard to imagine today, this was once the world’s rose growing capital. Wherever you see newer homes in the town, chances are greenhouses once stood there.
Madison was once a popular spot for well-to-do New Yorkers to build a country home. Madison Avenue, in the western end of town, was Millionaire’s Row. Huge mansions with well tended gardens were occasional homes to Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and other prominent industry barons of the time.Fortunately, the wealthy citizens loved their community and contributed generously to its growth.

The town hall, the train station, the library and much of the open space were gifts from these previous residents.And the roses? One by one the greenhouses closed when it became cheaper to import roses. But many current residents and business owners can trace their roots to the rose growers of the past.

Commute

Madison is easily accessible to New York and to other New Jersey communities. But this is a town that chose not to put convenience above neighborhood. Twenty years ago when Route 24 was completed, whisking commuters through Chatham, Madison and Morristown, Madison rejected the plan for exits in town. The signs came down and Madison commuters gladly accepted the slight inconvenience of exiting in Chatham or Florham Park.Many residents commute to New York but Madison is also home to many people who drive south and west to work each day. Madison is on the Midtown Direct train line, a 45 minute ride into Penn Station. The New Jersey Transit train costs $308 for a monthly commuter ticket. Three parking lots offer daily or permit parking.

If you work for Pfizer, Maersk, Quest Diagnostics, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Wells Fargo Insurance Services or Bausch & Lomb Global Pharmaceuticals, tenants of Giralda Farms, the town’s corporate park, you could walk or ride your bike to work. And there is a great bike trail around the complex!

Eats

Downtown Madison offers everything you need. This is a town where you can do your grocery shopping or go out for a special meal. In a one mile stretch of Main Street you have many notable restaurants to choose from.While a couple new restaurants opened this year, it is interesting to note that there are several nice places that have been thriving in Madison for over 20 years. These include some notable Italian restaurants, L’allegria Ristorante, Il Mondo Vecchio, and Rocco’s Tuscany Bar and Grill. There’s even a restaurant devoted to garlic, Garlic Rose.

Some of the restaurants are owned by longtime Madison residents, some who came to be restaurateurs serendipitously. On Waverly Place there’s Poor Herbie’s, a town gathering place owned by active Madison residents enjoying a second career, Dennis and Judy Mullins. Shanghai Jazz is known throughout the New York/New Jersey area for great live jazz and Chinese food.

Martha Chang and her husband took over the restaurant from her parents, changed the name and introduced jazz. The NY Times called the owners almost as interesting as their noodles, Martha has a PhD in Chinese politics from Harvard.There are several popular chain residents including Five Guys, Chipotle, Bagel Chateau, Burger King and Starbucks. Pizza and bagels are plentiful.

You don’t have to leave town for groceries either. You’ll be amazed at the great selection – there’s a large Whole Foods, a Stop and Shop, and a really special shop for alcohol and good food, Gary’s Wine and Marketplace (another homegrown business, this one in a former car dealership).

Neighborhoods

Madison is picture perfect. Street after street of beautiful homes, rolling hills and spacious college campuses. It blends seamlessly into neighboring towns Chatham, Florham Park, Green Village and Convent Station. This is a town made for bike riding; bike paths extend through town and into the neighboring Loantaka Reservation.The town is 4 square miles. It has its own power grid, something that comes in handy after storms like Sandy; not relying on a big power company meant faster recovery.

There are about 5500 households in the village. While most families live in single-family homes, there are also apartments and condominiums, especially close to the downtown and the colleges.

There are a handful of streets that run through the town, north to south, or east to west. These are the streets with sidewalks. Most of the residential streets have more of a country feel, with no sidewalks, gentle hills and curves. The Bottle Hill Historic District includes Ridgedale Avenue, the town’s oldest street and home to some of the most historic homes in town. There are apartment buildings at one end of the street and Madison High School is at the other.

Madison and Park Avenues start as a V, bracketing a park, and fan out to form the front and back of Fairleigh Dickenson University. There’s a mix of older and newer homes in this, northwest, part of town including a large condominium community, Madison Commons. It is also right near the Jets training camp (formerly an Exxon campus).

The southeast area of town has many homes built in the 40s, 50s and 60s. It’s an easy walk to Memorial Park, home of the town pool and ball field. The southwest part of town, where the old orchards stood, is adjacent to open land in bordering Harding Township.

The section south of downtown, often referred to as The Hill, along Woodland Road, has many gracious homes built in the early part of the 20th century and some newer homes. They are some of the most expensive homes in town.To the west, near the Universities, the Fairwoods section was developed in the Arts & Crafts style. The section began in the early 1900s as the town’s first planned development, with its companion Ardsleigh section of ranch-style homes following in the 1950s.

Heading west on Madison Avenue is Drew University, a 186 acre campus with stately brick buildings including historic Mead Hall, a former home that became a seminary and eventually grew into the present day university. A little further along is Fairleigh Dickenson University, similar in size to Drew. Here another historic home, this one with a pedigree, sits at the center of the campus. The Twombly family (she was a Vanderbilt, granddaughter of the world’s richest man) built their country estate here in the late 1800s. Designed by Stanford White with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted, the house had 100 rooms. They named it Florham and, later, the neighboring town became Florham Park (much of the campus is in Florham Park). Adjacent to Fairleigh is The College of St. Elizabeth, in the town of Convent Station.

Another former resident has left her mark in Madison. Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge lived in the community; her estate is now a corporate campus on Madison Avenue. She built the town hall, Hartley Dodge, in honor of her son who died in France. She gave many gifts to the town and also created an animal sanctuary, St. Hubert’s Giralda, which remains.

Madison has had its share of the rich and famous in its storied past. Current notable residents include: Andy Breckman, Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria and JoJo Starbuck.

Schools

Madison boasts its own school district; that is uncommon in New Jersey for a town of Madison’s size.Three elementary schools are located within walking distance to many homes, very few students live far enough to be bussed. All three schools are for Kindergarten through 5th grade:

  • Kings Road
  • Central Avenue
  • Torey J. Sabatini (known as Torey J)

Two elementary schools that closed many years ago remain educational hubs for the town. The former Lucy D. Anthony School is now The F.M. Kirby Children’s Center of the Madison Area YMCA and the Green Village Road School is home to Playwrights Theatre which offers programs for the schools.

Right on Main Street is the former high school, now Madison Junior School for grades 6, 7 and 8.

Madison High School serves both Madison students and those from Harding Township, a small affluent community to the south. The school was ranked 6th in the state in the 2012 NJ Monthly ratings.

The Madison football team is currently enjoying a 37 game winning streak; they were state champs in ’10, ’11, and ’12. Although they have not always been a football powerhouse, Neil O’Donnell, a former Super Bowl quarterback, did graduate from Madison.Photo 4The comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo also attended Madison High.

St. Vincent Martyr School is located near the center of town and includes Pre-kindergarten to 7th grade.

The Academy of Saint Elizabeth is a private, girls high school on the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth just over the border in Convent Station. Drew University and Fairleigh Dickinson University are in Madison.

Family Fun

This is a sophisticated town with small town values. Activities are family focused – from sports, to arts, shopping, education and recreation – its all Rated G.Madison continues to enjoy the right heritage and significant gifts given by former residents. In addition to the mansions on the university campuses, there’s the James Building. This Richardson Romanesque building, the centerpiece of the town on Main Street at Green Village Road, was built for the town as the library in 1900. When the town outgrew that space, it became the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, home to residents Agnes and Edgar Land’s significant collection of practical, historical objects. Today it offers programs and displays for the whole family. Madison Civic Commercial Historic District, which includes much of downtown, the train station, Museum and town hall, is listed on the State Register of Historic Places.

The new Library (now almost 50 years old) is an excellent community service, with a great children’s room and a vast collection of books, movies and more. Just across the street is the Madison Area YMCA. You can’t get any more family friendly than the Y!

There’s also Plaza Lanes Bowling in the shopping center on the eastern end of Main Street.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is located on the Drew campus. Clearview Cinemas is a four screen theatre just across from the train station.

Madison Community Pool and the adjacent Memorial Park offer plenty of opportunity for all residents to participate in sports and recreational activities.NY Jets training facility may only offer you an occasional glimpse of the giant men in green who play there but it’s nice to have them as neighbors.

Bottle Hill Day is a great annual festival on the first Saturday in October that attracts everyone from Madison and neighboring communities for live music, auto show, food, vendors and fun.

Madison has a very vibrant downtown with specialty stores and everything you need to complete your Saturday morning to-do list, from Blue Ridge Mountain Sports for clothing and outdoor gear to Cambridge Street Papers for fine stationary and gifts. The Suburban Shop has been providing the town’s shoes for generations.

Interestingly, Madison has long had a reputation for fine shops for used goods! Time After Time is a first-class vintage clothing store. The Chatham Bookseller is a quaint used book store that could keep you browsing for a day. Several stores sell consignment clothing and decorative items.

Natalie Farrell

Sales Associate
Weichert, Realtors
"The Mill," 697 Valley Street
Maplewood, NJ 07040
Cell: (917) 514-7541
Office: (973) 762-3300

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