Downtown Madison offers glimpse back in time, new nightlife venue

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MADISON, N.C. (WGHP) — Finding a quick getaway for your family is pretty easy when it comes to the Piedmont area.

On this week’s Destination Vacation, we take you to the town of Madison where there’s a lot to explore.

It’s a small town with a lot to unpack.

We will take you to our first stop: the Dry Goods and Country Store.

“It can be spooky for sure. It is our part of history. Is a sad part of history. Is the sad part of this building’s history,” said the owner of the Dry Goods and Country store Michael Smith.

The place is known nationally and around the world. Just recently, it was featured in a Netflix series.

“People had brought their families for many years. I have people come in, and they remember it from 28 years ago when it first opened,” Smith said.

Built in 1908, the building used to serve as a hardware store, a funeral home, a hotel and much more.

The place also holds one of the town’s darkest stories. You can walk on the second floor which features two different museums. One highlights how people lived back then, and the other is about the Lawson family’s murders.

Charlie Lawson, a Stokes County farmer, killed his wife and six of his seven children before taking his own life. This mass murder happened on Christmas Day in 1929.

“We’ve had people that have heard footsteps in areas on the first floor, and we don’t have a third floor. We’ve heard knocking sounds. We’ve had people see apparitions of a young girl that’s here in the building, specifically on the second floor in the old hotel area,” Smith said.

Smith has a future plan for the place. They expect that this week Smith will open a deli downstairs. In the near future, they are also looking to expand the museum.

“I’m so excited to be able to continue the legacy that Richard and Kathy Miller started here 28 years ago,” Smith said.

The second place that highlights the nightlife just recently became a new staple in downtown Madison. The Wandering Sun Meadery has attracted a lot of attention.

The establishment is known for its honey wine.

“I tell people, ‘You are drinking flowers from your own backyard,'” said co-owner of Wandering Sun Meadery Trevor Ogle.

Ogle specializes in making wine from pure honey, which is a taste not many people are familiar with.

“It doesn’t really taste like wine, but it doesn’t really taste like beer. It’s kind of its own thing,” Ogle said.

These wines vary in texture, color and flavor.

Ogle said the drink is known in Ethiopia and is supposedly the oldest product in the world.

Its unique flavor has grown in popularity here in the United States.

“It was interesting to start brewing our own mead because it is huge for me. It used to be a very popular beverage. It used to start falling off, but it started making a resurgence,” Ogle said.

This place hasn’t even reached its first anniversary and is already making a difference by supporting our local honey farmers.

“We partner with a large honey farm that is doing a lot of good work trying to bring that population back up (bees), and we are trying to use as much local as we can,” Ogle said.

Whether you want to try something new or go back in time, the town of Madison sure is a vacation destination.