Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Madison
Madison is the unincorporated stretch of Davidson County north of East Nashville, running from Briley Parkway up to the Rivergate line and from Dickerson Pike east to the Cumberland River. It came into Metro with consolidation in 1963, and it is the closest thing left to an affordable address inside the county line.
- County
- Davidson
- Distance to downtown Nashville
- ~8 miles
- Character
- 1950s subdivisions on the old Gallatin Pike retail corridor
- Zip
- 37115
What’s actually there
- Gallatin Pike running the length of it, with a Corridor Design Overlay adopted in 2020 from Briley Parkway north to Anderson Lane
- Neely’s Bend, the large loop of the Cumberland River on the eastern side, with Peeler Park at its southern end
- Amqui Station, the 1910 railroad depot Johnny Cash bought and moved in 1979, now a public gathering space at 303 Madison Street
- Nashville National Cemetery at 1420 Gallatin Pike South
- Madison Station, a 32-acre redevelopment on Gallatin Pike planned for 1,767 residential units alongside retail and office
- The Madison branch library, the community center and the Madison Square retail strip
The housing stock
Mostly 1950s subdivision housing built on former farmland, with scattered pre-1900 survivors like the Robert Chadwell House of about 1874 on Neelys Bend Road, and newer infill along the Gallatin corridor. A 2012 study by the Urban Land Institute and MDHA that Metro still hosts made the point that matters: unlike a lot of declining inner-ring suburbs, Madison’s housing stock stayed occupied. Two published medians, and read the geography on each before you use either. Movoto put zip 37115 at $365,025 in July 2026. Redfin put its own drawn Madison boundary at $355,000 back in February 2025. Different areas, seventeen months apart, not interchangeable.
Getting around
About eight miles to downtown, roughly fifteen to twenty minutes off-peak by Ellington Parkway or Gallatin Pike. WeGo route 56 runs the Gallatin Pike corridor from downtown through Madison to Rivergate.
Things to do in Madison
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Amqui Station and Visitors Center
The 1910 L&N depot Johnny Cash saved from demolition, at 303 Madison Street. Hosts a farmers market on Sundays from 10am to 1pm, April through October.
Peeler Park and Peeler Park Greenway
3.7 miles of paved greenway plus hiking and equestrian trails, a Cumberland River boat ramp and a model airplane field, at the southern end of Neely’s Bend off Neelys Bend Road.
Madison Branch Library
610 Gallatin Pike South. Open Monday to Thursday 10 to 8, Friday 10 to 6, Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday 2 to 5.
Madison Community Center
550 North Dupont Avenue, open Monday to Thursday 6am to 8:30pm, Friday until 7:30pm and Saturday 8 to 4.
Nashville National Cemetery
1420 Gallatin Pike South. Grounds open daily sunrise to sunset.
Checked against each business as of August 17, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.
Subdivisions and named developments in Madison
Once you are actually looking, you stop searching by city and start searching by subdivision. These are the names that come up, and what is true about each one that will still be true in three years. No prices, no dues, no days on market, because those change and this page would go stale telling you about them.
Rainbow Terrace
Between Neelys Bend Road and Old Hickory Boulevard, and one of the oldest recorded plats still shaping a Nashville neighborhood.
- 293 lots on a single plat recorded July 31, 1929. About 305 parcels today, so almost a century later the lot fabric is nearly intact.
- Mixed by classification: single family, duplex, church, day care and low rise apartment parcels all sit inside the original plat.
- Metro’s approved FEMA layer returns no mapped floodplain through the interior.
- Built out over decades rather than in one wave, which is why the housing on a single street can span fifty years.
Crittenden Estates
Off Neelys Bend Road, platted in one filing in 1939 and never expanded.
- 206 lots on a single plat recorded March 17, 1939. About 153 parcels carry the name today, so a number of the original lots were consolidated.
- Single family and duplex classifications, no condominium.
- Metro’s approved FEMA layer returns Zone AE and floodway reaching into the interior of this subdivision. Along with Donelson Hills and Antioch Park, this is one of the few where mapped flood risk sits inside the body of the neighborhood rather than at its edge. Pull the map on the specific parcel.
- No HOA I can verify.
Kingsway Green
A single 1968 filing off Queen Anne Drive, with an English street naming scheme running through it: Edward VII Avenue, London Bridge Road, Sandhurst Drive.
- 113 lots on one plat recorded October 11, 1968, and exactly 113 parcels today. The plat and the current parcel fabric match perfectly, which almost never happens.
- Single family, with a mobile home classification on at least one parcel. No condominium.
- Metro’s approved FEMA layer returns no mapped floodplain or floodway intersecting the plat footprint at all.
- No HOA I can verify.
Heron Walk
The 1990s subdivision on a Cumberland River bend, platted across five phases between 1996 and 1999, with a coastal street naming scheme laid over Middle Tennessee.
- 203 platted lots across five plats recorded between June 1996 and June 1999. About 208 parcels today.
- All single family detached per the Assessor. No condominium or Horizontal Property Regime classification.
- HOA, governed by a recorded declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions. The association publishes no built amenities.
- Metro’s approved FEMA layer returns no mapped floodplain through the interior, despite the river bend location. Verify the specific parcel anyway.
Edenwold
The oldest recorded plat covered anywhere on this site, filed in 1918 along Gallatin Pike, and the clearest example of a residential subdivision turning commercial.
- 300 lots on a single plat recorded May 14, 1918, with Shakespeare Avenue and Tennyson Avenue inside it. A consolidation plat was recorded as recently as 2019.
- Only about 66 parcels in 37115 still reference Edenwold City in their legal description, down from 300 platted lots. That drop is the whole story.
- Today the surviving parcels are classed single family, auto dealer, auto repair, light manufacturing, small warehouse, open storage, office, parking lot and vacant commercial. A 1918 residential plat has been substantially absorbed into the Gallatin Pike commercial corridor.
- If you are looking at anything here, the zoning and the land use classification matter more than the plat does.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Served by Metro Nashville Public Schools, assigned by address, with a separate choice and magnet application alongside zoned assignment. Confirm the specific address in the district’s Zone Finder.
I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.
What a buyer needs to know here
Three things I would want you to know before you write an offer here. First, the corridor is genuinely in play. Gallatin Pike is one of the ten All-Access corridors named in the transit program voters approved in November 2024, the Corridor Design Overlay has governed frontage since 2020, and Madison Station is a 32-acre, 1,767-unit redevelopment on the Pike itself. That is opportunity and it is also years of construction. Second, TriStar Skyline Madison moved its medical and surgical inpatient services to Centennial in August 2024. Behavioral health services remain on the campus. If proximity to a full-service hospital is part of why you are looking here, verify what is actually open today rather than what the signage says. Third, Neely’s Bend is wrapped by the Cumberland River on three sides and has no bridge into Nashville from its northern end, so both flood risk and drive time are specific to where in the bend you are. Check the parcel on Metro’s flood tool at nashvilletn.withforerunner.com and on FEMA’s map service before contingencies come off.
Common questions
Is Madison a city?
No. It is unincorporated Davidson County inside Metro, annexed in 1963 at consolidation, so it has no separate city government and no separate city property tax. What it does have is a service district question: Metro is split into an Urban Services District and a General Services District, the rates differ, and the services differ. I check which one a specific parcel sits in rather than assuming, because Madison sits near that line.
What is happening on Gallatin Pike?
More than most people realize. A Corridor Design Overlay from Briley Parkway to Anderson Lane has governed how frontage gets built since 2020, Metro ran another corridor study with a public workshop in November 2025, and Gallatin Pike is one of the ten All-Access corridors in the transit program voters approved in 2024. There is also a funded complete streets project on a mile-plus segment. Timelines on the transit work are not settled, so buy the house on its own merits and treat the corridor as upside.
What is Madison Station?
A 32-acre mixed-use redevelopment on Gallatin Pike planned at 1,767 residential units with retail, office and amenity space, with the Urban League of Middle Tennessee holding an ownership stake. It is the largest single thing happening in Madison. If you are buying nearby, look at the current phasing before you decide how you feel about living beside a multi-year build.
What is Amqui Station?
The 1910 railroad depot that Johnny Cash bought in 1979 and moved to his Hendersonville property to keep it from being demolished. After he died it was moved again and restored, and it now sits at 303 Madison Street as a public space with a Sunday farmers market from April through October. It is the piece of Madison people are most surprised by.
Does Madison flood?
The question is the parcel, not the neighborhood, and it matters most in Neely’s Bend where the Cumberland wraps three sides. Metro points people to FEMA’s map service at msc.fema.gov and to its own flood tool at nashvilletn.withforerunner.com, and Metro Water will confirm the zone and the base flood elevation for a specific address. Metro’s own guidance is that a property inside a special flood hazard area carries about a 26 percent chance of flooding over a 30-year mortgage, and that being outside the mapped area is not a guarantee of anything.
Thinking about Madison?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?