Madison County, Virginia

Madison County is a county in Virginia, United States, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the Rapidan and Robinson rivers. It had a population of 13,837 at the 2020 census and covers 322 square miles (833 km2), centred near 38°25′N 78°17′W.

Madison is the county seat and the only incorporated town; its postal code is 22727. The county has one town, one census-designated place, and several dozen unincorporated crossroads communities, and it sits in the Eastern time zone.

Towns & Villages in Madison County

Madison County has one incorporated town, one census-designated place, and roughly 40 named unincorporated communities scattered across its farmland and mountain hollows. Most of the smaller places are crossroads settlements or former post-office stops rather than towns with defined boundaries.

Big Meadows, Old Rag, and Graves Mill sit inside or along the boundary of Shenandoah National Park rather than in open county land, and carry no ZIP code of their own — mail there is served through Syria or Criglersville.

ZIP Codes

• 22727 — Madison (also serves the county seat and surrounding farmland)
• 22715 — Brightwood
• 22709 — Aroda
• 22711 — Banco
• 22719 — Etlan (also serves Old Rag trailhead area)
• 22722 — Haywood
• 22723 — Hood
• 22725 — Leon
• 22948 — Locust Dale
• 22730 — Oakpark
• 22731 — Pratts
• 22732 — Radiant
• 22735 — Reva
• 22738 — Rochelle
• 22743 — Syria (also serves Graves Mill)
• 22748 — Wolftown
• 22989 — Woodberry Forest

Smaller crossroads communities such as Criglersville, Kinderhook, and Twymans Mill are covered by a neighboring town’s ZIP code rather than having their own.

Geography

Madison County straddles the transition from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Virginia Piedmont. Its western third lies inside Shenandoah National Park, taking in Hawksbill Mountain, the park’s highest point, and Old Rag Mountain, one of the most heavily hiked summits in the state. The Rapidan River and its tributary the Robinson River drain the county eastward, and Rapidan Camp — the fishing retreat President Herbert Hoover built in the 1930s — sits on the Rapidan within the park boundary, reached from Criglersville. Madison County borders Page County to the northwest, Rappahannock County to the north, Culpeper County to the east, Orange County to the southeast, and Greene County to the southwest.

Demographics

Madison County had 13,837 residents at the 2020 census, spread across 322 square miles for a density of about 43 people per square mile — among the more rural counties in the Virginia Piedmont. Madison town and the Brightwood CDP are the county’s two largest named places, though most residents live outside either on farms and in the smaller crossroads communities. Virginia’s statewide median household income is $89,931 (2023 ACS); Madison County, a mostly agricultural and orchard-farming county without a large employer base, runs below that figure.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture remains central to Madison County’s economy, particularly orchards, beef cattle, and hay, alongside a growing wine and cidery trade drawing on the county’s Blue Ridge foothill slopes. Tourism tied to Shenandoah National Park — hiking to Old Rag Mountain and camping near the Rapidan — brings steady visitor traffic through Madison town and Etlan. Woodberry Forest School, a boarding school founded in 1889, is one of the county’s larger institutional employers.

History

Madison County was formed in December 1792 from part of Culpeper County and named for the Madison family, prominent early landholders in the area; President James Madison, born in nearby King George County, was a descendant of the same family line. The county’s mountain hollows were settled by German and Scots-Irish farming families through the 18th and 19th centuries, and several of its smaller communities — Syria, Wolftown, Criglersville — grew up around gristmills and post offices rather than any planned town center. The federal government’s creation of Shenandoah National Park in the 1930s displaced a number of mountain families from the county’s western hollows, some of whose old home sites are still marked along park trails.

Getting There

US Route 29 runs along the county’s eastern edge and US Route 15 passes near its southeastern corner; Virginia Routes 230 and 231 cross the county and link Madison town to the surrounding communities.

• Charlottesville, Virginia — 25 miles south
• Culpeper, Virginia — 20 miles northeast
• Luray, Virginia — 20 miles northwest
• Washington, D.C. — 90 miles northeast

The nearest commercial airport is Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO), about 30 miles south of Madison town.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Madison County, Virginia?
It sits in the northern Piedmont of Virginia, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, between Charlottesville and the Shenandoah Valley.

What is the population of Madison County?
Madison County had a population of 13,837 at the 2020 census.

How big is Madison County?
The county covers 322 square miles (833 km2), most of it farmland and mountain forest.

What is the county seat of Madison County?
Madison is the county seat and its only incorporated town.

How many towns are in Madison County?
Madison County has one incorporated town (Madison), one census-designated place (Brightwood), and roughly 40 smaller unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes are in Madison County?
The main ZIP codes are 22727 (Madison), 22715 (Brightwood), 22743 (Syria), 22719 (Etlan), and 22948 (Locust Dale), among others listed above.

What part of Shenandoah National Park is in Madison County?
Old Rag Mountain, Hawksbill Mountain, and Rapidan Camp, Herbert Hoover’s presidential retreat, all lie within the county’s section of the park.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Virginia.