Madisonville

Madisonville was founded in 1809 as Madison, Ohio, in honor of James Madison, who had recently been inaugurated as the fourth president of the United States. Madisonville, one of Cincinnati’s older neighborhoods, boasts a long and colorful history. The first permanent settlers, the Joseph Ward family, built three log cabins in 1797 along a Native American trail near the area that is now Whetsel Avenue, Erie Avenue, and Red Bank Road. The famous archeological excavations of the Madisonville Site by Dr. Charles Metz and his crew discovered artifacts that are housed in museums across the world. State and federal legislators, as well as secretaries of commerce and defense, grew up in Madisonville. The city is home to public, private, and parochial schools, plus over 25 churches. Incorporation into the city of Cincinnati in 1911 brought about numerous renovations of the business district, and a renaissance is currently underway.