Niles Downtown Historic District

	Niles Downtown Historic District
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic district
	200 and 300 block of Main Street
	Niles Downtown Historic District Location in Michigan Niles Downtown Historic District Location in United States
Location	Sycamore, Main and Cedar bet. Front and 5th, Niles, Michigan
Coordinates	41°49′47″N86°15′22″W / 41.82972°N 86.25611°W Coordinates: 41°49′47″N86°15′22″W / 41.82972°N 86.25611°W
Area	12 acres (4.9 ha)
Built	1884
Architect	Myrle E. Smith, et al.
Architectural style	Italianate, Classical Revival
NRHP reference #	07000568 [1]
Added to NRHP	June 21, 2007

Last updated September 26, 2019

The Niles Downtown Historic District is a commercial historic district located in Niles, Michigan along Sycamore, Main and Cedar Streets between Front and 5th. The districts was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. ^[1]

Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities in the Niles-Benton Harbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, an area with 156,813 people.

National Register of Historic Places Federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

History

This location served as the commercial center of Niles since the 1820s, when the area was ceded by the Odawa to the United States. A few settlers soon arrived, and in 1828 Obed P. Lacey and Samuel B. Walling opened the first store at this location. The first portion of Niles was platted the following year, including the downtown area. The Chicago Road between Detroit and Chicago was completed through the area in 1832-33, and its location only a few miles south of Niles served to bring settlers into the area. By 1835, Niles had several hundred residents and a village government was established; by 1840, the population was 1200. The earliest buildings in Niles were of log construction, but these soon gave way to frame buildings. These buildings were subsequently replaced, and the only surviving early frame building from the downtown area is the 1843 Paine Bank, which was originally located at the corner of Main and Third, but was later moved outside the district.^[2]

Odawa Indigenous people of North America

The Odawa, said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the northern United States and southern Canada. They have long had territory that crosses the current border between the two countries, and they are federally recognized as Native American tribes in the United States and have numerous recognized First Nations bands in Canada. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi peoples.

Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the largest American city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art, architecture and design.

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest city limits extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.

Railroad service to Niles began in 1850, causing a surge in population and commerce in the village. The village became a city in 1859, and by 1860 the population was over 2700. In the commercial district, solid rows of buildings extended along Main from the river nearly to Third Street, with more buildings along Front and Second near Main. Brick buildings in the 100 and 200 block of Main, constructed before 1860, still stand in the district. Niles grew only slowly through the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, and the extent of the commercial section in 1895 was little larger than it was in 1870. Only in the late 1890s did new development extend all the way to Third.^[2]

Although a new Carnegie library and post office were constructed in the first decade of the 20th, century, almost no commercial buildings were constructed until after World War I. During the 1920s, a number of old buildings were replaced, and nearly every other older building underwent a storefront modernization. At the same time, the commercial district in Niles expanded, with newer buildings farther up Main Street. However, the Great Depression intervened, and almost nothing was done in the area until after World War II. Beginning in the late 1940s, a number of new buildings were constructed, and other storefronts were modernized with aluminum and porcelain enamel metal finishes.^[2]

A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and others in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Serbia, Belgium, France, the Caribbean, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Fiji.

The Old U.S. Post Office in Niles, Michigan is a Classical Revival building that was built in 1909. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

World War I 1914–1918 global war starting in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the resulting 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

However, by the 1950s, new business development was taking place on the outskirts of the city, and the city turned to an urban renewal agenda for the downtown. A number of plans were proposed, and eventually, in 1971, a section along Front Street was razed to make way for a new shopping center. After some false starts, the center was built in 1984. However, by this time, the newly established Downtown Development Authority was advocating for renovation, and by the 2000s, facade renovations projects were underway in the district, resulting in a stretch of historically appropriate facades along Main Street.^[2]

Description

The Niles Downtown Historic District extends along a four-block section of Main Street, and generally includes the first block of the side streets to either side of Main. The district contains 86 buildings. The buildings are predominantly two- and three-story commercial structures, with some one- and four-story buildings. Seven buildings at the edges of the district were built as private houses; most of these have been converted to commercial purposes. Buildings date from the 1850s to the 1960s, in styles ranging from Greek Revival and Italianate to 1950s and 60s modern. The oldest buildings in the district, dating from the 1850s and early 1860s, are of brick construction and are located along Main between Front and Third as well as on adjacent portions of Front and Second.^[2]

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. It revived the style of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the Greek temple, with varying degrees of thoroughness and consistency. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture, which had for long mainly drawn from Roman architecture. The term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1842.

Italianate architecture 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture.

Modern architecture broad type of architecture

Modern architecture, or modernist architecture was based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel and reinforced concrete; the idea that form should follow function (→functionalism); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament. It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after World War II until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.

Gallery

Niles Post Office (322 E Main)
Carnegie Library (321 E. Main)
Four Flags Hotel (404-06 E. Main)

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References

1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
1 2 3 4 5 Robert O. Christensen (December 2006), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Niles Downtown Historic District (note: large pdf file)

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[nris-1] 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.

[nom-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Robert O. Christensen (December 2006), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Niles Downtown Historic District (note: large pdf file)

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