Downtown Commercial Historic District | |
 Municipal River Terminal (1928) in 2013. | |
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| Location | 100-800 blocks of Jefferson Street, plus parts of adjacent blocks east of 4th Street from Columbia to Market, Burlington, Iowa |
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| Coordinates | 40°48′36″N91°06′10″W / 40.81000°N 91.10278°W Coordinates: 40°48′36″N91°06′10″W / 40.81000°N 91.10278°W |
| NRHP reference # | 14001168 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 21, 2015 |
The Downtown Commercial Historic District encompasses most of the central business district of Burlington, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The historic district includes 65 properties that were part of a 2012 to 2013 survey of the area. It also includes as contributing properties the buildings in the West Jefferson Street Historic District and three buildings in the Manufacturing and Wholesale Historic District that were previously listed on the National Register. All total there are 122 resources within the district, which includes 108 contributing and 14 non-contributing properties. [2]
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business center of a city. In larger cities, it is often synonymous with the city's "financial district". Geographically, it often coincides with the "city centre" or "downtown", but the two concepts are separate: many cities have a central business district located away from its commercial or cultural city centre or downtown, or even several CBDs at once. In London, for example, the "city centre" is usually regarded as encompassing the historic City of London and the mediaeval City of Westminster, whereas the City of London and the transformed Docklands area are regarded as its two CBDs. In New York City, Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the city and in the world; yet Lower Manhattan, commonly called Downtown Manhattan, represents the second largest, and second, distinct CBD in New York City and is geographically situated south of Midtown. In Chicago, the Chicago Loop is the second largest central business district in the United States and is also referred to as the core of the city's downtown. Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with two CBDs: the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma – Polanco, and the new Santa Fe.
Burlington is a city and the county seat of Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 25,663 in the 2010 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in the 2000 census. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area including West Burlington, Iowa, and Middletown, Iowa, and Gulfport, Illinois. Burlington is the home of Snake Alley, once labelled the crookedest alley in the world.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.
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The downtown area developed in three periods. The first period (1865-1894) was an era of prosperity associated with the development of the city's railroad connections after the American Civil War. The second period (1895-1929) was an era of maturity and the development of modern commercial buildings. This is the time period when Burlington's "tall" downtown buildings were built. The third period (1930-1967) saw competition from suburban development, especially in West Burlington. There were efforts to retain old businesses and attract new ones, while modernizing and improving the area. The inclusion of West Jefferson Street was important because it was the main thoroughfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the Hawkeye Creek Valley. It led from the central business district along the Mississippi River to the Agency Road that headed westward out of town. [2] [3]
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights in order to uphold slavery.
West Burlington is a city in Des Moines County, Iowa, United States, adjacent to the Mississippi River city of Burlington. The population was 2,968 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
For the most part the buildings in the district housed commercial enterprises, both retail, banking and professional offices. The government buildings are, for the most part, located elsewhere. The taller buildings are located on the east side along Jefferson Street and the adjacent blocks. Most of the buildings are three to four stories, with the tallest buildings rising eight to nine stories. There are also numerous one and two story structures. The buildings are mostly brick. The older buildings from the first period tend toward the Italianate and the Romanesque Revival styles. The taller, more modern buildings of the second period tend to utilize the Neoclassical style, and the buildings in the third period are in the more simplified modern styles. [2]
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture.
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, however, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to feature more simplified arches and windows than their historic counterparts.
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles, and the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.
