Maysville Downtown Historic District - Maysville, KY - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Description from nrhp.focus.nps.gov:

Downtown Maysville is a textbook example of 19th century American urban design. Its visual and spatial qualities reflect over 150 years of planning and building. The majority of structures in the downtown were built between 18OO and 1920. A remarkable rate of structural survival and relatively little building activity within the past half century have helped to create a cityscape of great architectural variety and distinction.

As a river town, Maysville was exposed to a wide field of architectural influences. Many buildings are outstanding design achievements; some features, such as the stepped parapet gable end, are virtually unique to Maysville. The Federal row houses of Limestone Street, Greek temple form courthouse, the IOOF/Merz Bros, building with its 15th century Venetian Gothic detailing, may serve to represent the skillful blending of materials, as well as the diversity of texture and color which characterizes the Maysville downtown.

The district has also retained most of its 19th century spatial configuration. The gridded town plat of 1823 has remained essentially unchanged to this day. Through both the turn of the century commercial eclecticism of Second Street and the concentration of early 19th century residences on West Third Street, Maysville presents a building scale and density which are unmistakably urban, yet far from intimidating, 18th century Maysville joined the Cumberland Gap as a principal point of entry to Kentucky and the western frontier. 19th century Maysville joined such cities as Cincinnati, Louisville, Cairo and New Orleans as an important riverport in the Ohio-Mississippi system.

Though surpassed in growth during the later 19th century by other Ohio River cities, Maysville continues into the 20th century as a vital regional commercial center. The boundaries defining the downtown district encompass that area of Maysville which has experienced the greatest concentration of building activity for more than 175 years and today includes the greatest diversity of building type and function, It is thus distinguished from neighboring areas of comparable historic significance which are almost exclusively residential in character, The Maysville downtown may be read as a continuum of American architecture, which, through quality of design, materials, placement and scale, presents itself as a highly cohesive historical cityscape. The visual diversity and richness, as well as the historical importance, of downtown Maysville render it outstanding among the county seats and cities of Kentucky.

Street address: Roughly bounded by McDonald Pkwy., Front, Wall, Limestone and 3rd Sts. Maysville, KY USA County / Borough / Parish: Mason County Year listed: 1982 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1750-1799, 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic, Government, Religion, Social Current function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic, Government, Religion, Social Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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