Text from National Register of Historic Places - 1987
The Monroe Downtown Historic District consists of the Old Union County Courthouse with its square and approximately six blocks of commercial buildings to the
west and south of the courthouse. These blocks include the surviving, intact,
pre-1935 portions of the city's central business district. The commercial
buildings that make up the district are from one to five stories tall, all of
masonry construction, in a variety of styles and dates from 1875 to the early 1930s,
illustrating the development of the downtown during that period. There are
twenty-six contributing properties in the district and nine non-contributing
ones, plus one property already listed in the National Register, the Old Union
County Courthouse.
The Old County Courthouse is located on a ridge
overlooking the valley of Bearskin Creek and the railroad corridor next to it.
For anyone approaching the downtown, the great height and mass of the
courthouse's tower provides a landmark. Surrounding the courthouse is a
landscaped square containing several large trees and, on the west side, the
Confederate Monument. Sloping downhill from the courthouse on all sides is a grid
pattern of streets, part of the original plan for the county seat laid out by
commissioners appointed in 1843.
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| 1847 Jail -1893 City Hall |
Historically, the two major streets in the central
business district have been N. Main (formerly Lafayette) street and Franklin
Street, which intersect at the southwest corner of the courthouse square. Until
the early 1970s, Main Street led to the railroad station, but in the 1970s, Main,
north of the old courthouse, was converted to a mall at the end of which was
placed the new courthouse. The east side of the courthouse square, which was
the last side to be built up with brick structures, has also been the most
redeveloped and has lost its integrity. The north side of the square, while
retaining several early buildings, including the oldest structure in the city
[1847Jail], the old Monroe City Hall [1893] (individually listed in the National Register), has
also lost its integrity due to alterations.
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| Hotel Joffre circa 1918 |
Two corners of the courthouse square are anchored by
buildings which, by their height and formality, reinforce the old county
courthouse. At southwest corner is the Hotel Joffre Building of 1917-1919, a five-story yellow
tapestry brick, limestone trimmed Classical Revival style edifice that
stretches down W. Franklin Street, filling the north end of its block. At the
southeast corner of the plaza is the three-story Bank of Union of 1905-06, a tan brick
classical Revival style bank/office building with a prominent, domed corner
tower which is supported by flanking buildings of a similar style.
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| Bank of Union circa 1905 |
In addition to the Hotel Joffre, the west side of the
courthouse plaza includes the two-story, stuccoed brick Peoples Bank Building of
1875. Although altered on the first floor around 1900, this building is one of
the earliest and most handsome masonry structures built in Monroe.
The south face of the plaza consists of two-story
brick commercial buildings dating from the 1870s to the late 1920s in
Italianate, Classical Revival and Italian Renaissance Revival styles. Some
shopfronts have been altered, but the upper levels of the buildings, and
several of the shopfronts are intact.
N. Main Street slopes down from the courthouse plaza
to the beginnings of the residential area at its south end. Historically, the
greatest concentration of buildings has been at the north end of Main Street,
and this is also the best-preserved section.
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| Lee Building 1901 |
At the southwest corner of Main
and Franklin Streets is the Victorian Eclectic styled Lee Building, constructed in 1901. Although
the building's shopfront has been replaced, the ornate upper levels of the
former dry goods store are intact. Next to the Lee Building are two other
Victorian Eclectic buildings, constructed for the Belk Brothers in 1901 and ca.1905,
which are now joined at the first floor. On the east side of the block are
two-story brick commercial structures dating from the turn of the century to
the early 1930s, anchored at the south end by the three-story Belk/Bundy Building of
1901. While the building's Spanish tile pent cornice has been removed for
safety reasons, the yellow brick clad Italian Renaissance Revival style design
enlivened by white glazed terra cotta trim conveys the prosperity of Monroe's
early twentieth century business district.
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| Belk/Bundy Building 1901 |
The rear side of this block, facing N. Hayne Street,
is completely filled by the 1924 Monroe Hardware Company Warehouse's
three-story brick and concrete mass. Across the alley from it to the north is
the Monroe Hardware Company Building of 1928, constructed with a similar tapestry
brick. The long side elevation of the red and yellow brick Classical Revival
style Secrest Building, reconstructed in 1928, completes the block.
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| Late 19th Century Stewart House |
On the south side of E. Franklin Street are a row of
one-story brick stores, constructed ca. 1908 but with altered fronts, and two larger,
more richly-detailed two-story brick commercial buildings constructed ca.1902
and ca.1912. One of these, 200 E. Franklin, is associated with J. Shute and
sons, and like their buildings at the corner of Hayne and Franklin Streets, is
faced with yellow brick.
As is common in commercial districts, the first floor
fronts of many of the Monroe downtown buildings have been rebuilt. However, in
most cases the upper levels of the buildings have retained their integrity or
the changes made to them are readily reversible. Some rehabilitation has taken
place in recent years, most notably that of the Bank of Union Building. The
recent restoration of the Old Union County Courthouse and its plaza has greatly
improved the historic feeling and integrity of the district.
Significance
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| Early Monroe Depot |
Historical Background
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| Belk's "New York Racket" Store - Late 1800s |
Over the next thirty years a predominantly frame
business district grew up around the courthouse square, in which was located a
frame courthouse. The block faces surrounding the courthouse did not develop evenly;
along Franklin and Lafayette streets were located the largest and most
important businesses. During that period Monroe served largely as an
intermediate point in highway travel between North Carolina cities and the South
Carolina counties immediately to the south.
The December 1874 completion of the Carolina Central
Railway between Wilmington and Charlotte brought important changes in
the town's commercial standing. Monroe became a market town where agricultural
products from Union and the surrounding rural counties of North and South Carolina
could be exchanged for manufactured goods brought in on the railroad. It was a
hub between the state's greatest seaport and its fastest growing metropolis.
Construction of the Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railroad in 1887-1892
between Atlanta and Monroe further strengthened the city's status as a railroad
center. These railways were merged into the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1901
and, since the railroad did not go through Charlotte, Monroe became an
important link in the seaboard's north-south route. MORE...
Images courtesy Heritage Room Collection, Monroe, NC
Images courtesy Heritage Room Collection, Monroe, NC
