Madisonville depot
Depot site by Warren Street
photo by Wes Schultz
Side track at Madisonville
photo by Wes Schultz
Cannon-Stickley mansion is across from the depot site
photo by Wes Schultz
Monroe County Courthouse
photo by Wes Schultz
Courthouse entryway
photo by Wes Schultz
Madisonville, Tn., gained railroad service in 1890 as the county seat of Monroe County was on the route of a railroad connecting Knoxville with Marietta, Ga. The section at Madisonville was built by the Knoxville Southern Railway Company, and it connected with the Marietta & North Georgia Railway that went from Copperhill to Marietta.
This became an L&N (Louisville and Nashville Railroad) route when it acquired the line in 1902.
A frame depot that long stood at Madisonville was built by L&N about 1905. It was demolished in 1978 after passenger service had ceased.
Madisonville was also along the route of a pre-Civil War railroad that was planned to go from Anderson, S.C., to Knoxville. The railroad bed for the Blue Ridge Railway was well graded through Madisonville to Alcoa and then to Knoxville, though tracks were not laid. Along US 129 from Madisonville toward the mountains, traces of the old railroad bed can be seen very near the current highway. The Blue Ridge Railway was halted due to the Civil War. There were several unsuccessful attempts later to revive it.
The business section of Madisonville was erected around the courthouse on a hill, while the depot was at the foot of the hill by the track. It stood across Warren Street from the columned, two-story brick Cannon-Stickley mansion that dated to the 1840s and still stands.
The stately Monroe County Courthouse, with its distinctive clock tower, was built in 1897 at the site of an earlier courthouse. Native son Estes Kefauver launched his campaign for Vice President from the courthouse steps in 1956.