The faded CAPT MADISON sign shown in the photo has been attached to the side of a blue house in Silverdale for decades. While photographing it during my bike ride today, I wondered yet again who or what Captain Madison was.
The “Captain Madison” house (my name for it) is at the south end of town just north of the roundabout where Chico Way and Newberry Hill Road merge. The property fronts on Silverdale Way and has a killer view of Dyes Inlet.
The sign is about 6 feet by 9 feet. While “CAPT MADISON” and “DRINK” are the only words on it, there’s also a drawing of either a soda or a beer bottle in the lower right corner. The rest of the sign is blank, almost like additional details still need to be painted on the empty area. If so, there’s been a long wait. My guess is that the sign dates back to the mid-20th century.
In speculating on what the sign advertised, I have a couple of guesses. The first would be a business like a roadhouse or a tavern. The business could have been named for its proprietor or perhaps CAPT MADISON was chosen because the business catered to Navy members and others in the maritime industries and wanted a nautical name. The second possibility is that the sign was supposed to be a mid-century soda or beer advertising motif.
The sign is mounted on the north side of the house and isn’t noticeable when you look directly at the front of the building. Because a business would display a sign to its best advantage—that is, highly visible from the front entrance—that seems to suggest that CAPT MADISON didn’t operate out of the Silverdale Way location. Of course, the sign could have been moved decades ago from the front to the side of the building when the business shuttered. A small area in front of the building could have served as customer parking if a business was located there.
Or did owner of the house salvage the sign from a remote location and relocate it to preserve some local history? That sounds like a fair amount of trouble without a personal connection to the sign so perhaps there was one. Whatever the case, I think the sign was well worth saving.
Hopefully, the good people at the Kitsap County Historical Society & Museum can help solve this mystery.
Update: Kitsap County A History (second edition 1981) includes an article about Captain Madison (1870–1969), describing him as “one of the most colorful men in Puget Sound.” Born Martin Madison in Norway, he arrived in Seattle in 1890. Following a career as a mariner, starting in 1930 he built and operated a service station that specialized in Union oils and gas. Thus the sign is from a business—just not a roadhouse or a tavern. The article wasn’t clear on where Captain Madison’s service station was located, but the site of the present day “Madison House” in Silverdale is probably a good guess.
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