Wabasha Commercial Historic District

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Wabasha Commercial Historic District

Wabasha Commercial Historic District.jpg

Part of the Wabasha Commercial Historic District at the corner of Main Street and Allegheny Avenue
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Location Roughly along Main Street between Bridge and Bailey Avenues, Wabasha, Minnesota
Coordinates 44°23′2″N92°1′58″W / 44.38389°N 92.03278°W / 44.38389; -92.03278 Coordinates: 44°23′2″N92°1′58″W / 44.38389°N 92.03278°W / 44.38389; -92.03278
Area 10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built 1856–1928
Architect Multiple
Architectural style Italianate
NRHP reference # 82003063 [1]
Designated HD April 15, 1982

The Wabasha Commercial Historic District is a designation applied to the historic downtown of Wabasha, Minnesota, United States. It comprises 52 contributing properties built from 1856 to 1928. [2] It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for having local significance in the theme of commerce. [3] It was nominated for the integrity of its cohesive design and its continuity of use as a commercial district since the mid-19th century. [4]

Downtown citys core or central business district (CBD) in North America

Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English-speakers to refer to a city's commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart, and is often synonymous with its central business district (CBD). In British English, the term "city centre" is most often used instead. The two terms are used interchangeably in Colombia.

Wabasha, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Wabasha is a city in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,521 at the 2010 census. Located on the Mississippi River near its confluence with the Chippewa River, it is the county seat.

Contributing property key component of a place listed on the National Register of Historic Places

In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant. Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts. The first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931.

Contents

Description

The Wabasha Commercial Historic District is situated on a fluvial terrace parallel to the Mississippi River. Encompassing about 10 acres (4.0 ha), it stretches three and a half blocks along Wabasha's Main Street to the width of one block on either side, with a slight extension to the southwest along Pembroke Avenue. Of the 59 buildings included in the district upon its designation in 1982, all but 15 dated to the latter half of the 19th century. The district primarily comprises commercial buildings, though the western end includes several residential houses. [4]

Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a “tread,” separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial terraces, or uplands by distinctly steeper strips of land called “risers.” These terraces lie parallel to and above the river channel and its floodplain. Because of the manner in which they form, fluvial terraces are underlain by fluvial sediments of highly variable thickness.

Mississippi River largest river system in North America

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.

Main Street generic street name of the primary retail street of a location

Main Street is a generic phrase used to denote a primary retail street of a village, town or small city in many parts of the world. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in the central business district, and is most often used in reference to retailing and socializing.

The commercial buildings are largely consistent in design. Nearly all stand two stories tall, with brick walls or façades, and featuring a commercial adaptation of Italianate architecture. Their ornamentation is largely restrained to simple brick cornices, stone window sills and keystones, and a modest variety of window styles. [4]

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.

Cornice horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture

A cornice is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture element – the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown.

Window sill

A window sill is the surface at the bottom of a window.

One contributing property, the Hurd House–Anderson Hotel, had been individually listed on the National Register in 1978. Eight buildings were considered non-contributing properties because they were constructed or significantly altered outside the period or style of the rest of the district. [4]

Historic Anderson House Hotel

The Historic Anderson House Hotel is a hotel and event venue in Wabasha, Minnesota, United States. The hotel opened in 1856 and was Minnesota's oldest continuously operating bed and breakfast inn west of the Mississippi River. Most of the furniture dates back to 1856 as well. The building was expanded in 1887. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Hurd House–Anderson Hotel in 1978 for having local significance in the theme of commerce. It was nominated for being a prominent and long-operating business originating in the years of Wabasha's rapid growth as a river and rail transportation hub. In 1982 it was also listed as a contributing property to the Wabasha Commercial Historic District.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Wabasha County, Minnesota Wikimedia list article

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Wabasha County, Minnesota. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wabasha County, Minnesota, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.

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First Congregational Parsonage

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Merchants National Bank (Winona, Minnesota)

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Bear Valley Grange Hall

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Hedge Block

Hedge Block, also known as Johnson-Rasmussen Building, is a historic commercial building located in the central business district of Burlington, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was included as a contributing property in the West Jefferson Street Historic District in 1991 and in the Downtown Commercial Historic District in 2015.

Wabasha County Poor House

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Alexander Thoirs House

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Clara and Julius Schmidt House

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William H. and Alma Downer Campbell House

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Lorenz and Lugerde Ginthner House

The Lorenz and Lugerde Ginthner House is a historic house in Wabasha, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1882 in high Italianate style on a prominent corner lot. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 for having local significance in the theme of architecture. It was nominated for its elaborate Italianate architecture and status as the most intact and detailed example of the brick houses belonging to Wabasha's early merchant class.

Sentinel Block building in Iowa, United States

The Sentinel Block is a historic building located in Iowa Falls, Iowa, United States. Previous commercial blocks in Iowa Falls tended to follow the more ornate Italianate style. This building, completed in 1905, marks a departure from those older structures. Rectilinear brick panels above the windows replaced the decorative hoodmolds, and the brick patterned cornice with a plain stone cap replaced the heavy metal cornice. The building also features an oriel window with a crenelated parapet. The building housed the Iowa Falls Sentinel for over 20 years. It began as the Eldora Sentinel in 1857, relocated to Iowa Falls in 1865, and was bought out by its competitor, the Hardin County Citizen, in 1927.

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The Winona Commercial Historic District comprises six downtown blocks along 3rd Street in Winona, Minnesota, United States. It comprises 65 contributing properties mostly built in the 1880s and 1890s. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 for having local significance in the theme of commerce. It was nominated for reflecting the prosperity of a river and rail town that grew into southeast Minnesota's leading commercial center of the late 19th century.

Henry S. and Magdalena Schwedes House

The Henry S. and Magdalena Schwedes House is a historic house in Wabasha, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1882, part of a unique trend among the city's merchant class for brick houses. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 for its local significance in the theme of architecture. It was nominated for typifying Italianate architecture in its peak year of popularity in Wabasha, and for inaugurating a second generation of the town's merchants living in brick homes.

Lucas Kuehn House

The Lucas Kuehn House is a historic house in Wabasha, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1878 for Lucas Kuehn (1834–?), the city's leading merchant of the 19th century. The house was the city's first to be designed in the Italianate style. It was also part of a unique trend among Wabasha's merchant class for houses constructed of brick. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 for its local significance in the themes of architecture and commerce. It was nominated for its associations with Kuehn and for its exemplary Italianate architecture.

Blooming Prairie Commercial Historic District

The Blooming Prairie Commercial Historic District is a designation applied to the historic downtown of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, United States. It comprises 20 contributing properties built between 1893 and 1932. It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 for having local significance in the theme of commerce. It was nominated for being an unusually intact business district of an agricultural trade center on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad.

Upper Central Avenue Commercial Historic District

The Upper Central Avenue Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. At the time of its nomination it consisted of 65 resources, which included 56 contributing buildings, one contributing site and eight non-contributing buildings. This six block section of Central Avenue is located on the north side of the central business district. The largely linear district includes a jog at 18th Street. Below the jog the street was originally named Clay Street and above it Couler Avenue. It was also the dividing line where all commerce used the German language exclusively to the north. At one time the street featured a streetcar route and it was a significant farm-to-market route and a gateway into the city from the north.

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Wabasha Commercial Historic District". Minnesota National Register Properties Database. Minnesota Historical Society. 2009. Retrieved 2013-07-20.
  3. ↑ "Wabasha Commercial Historic District". Minnesota National Register Properties Database. Minnesota Historical Society. 2009. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Kudzia, Camille (February 1980). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Wabasha Historic District (Report). National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
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