County of district: Hardeman County
Location of district: TN-125 (Main St. ) & US-64 (Market St.), Bolivar
[Note: The buildings 102-104 East Market St., 104 E. Market St., & 108 E. Market St., (Numbers 21, 22, 24 NRHP) burned down and are no longer viable]
"Bolivar is the county seat of Hardeman County, which is located in southwestern Tennessee.
The Bolivar Court Square Historic District, which includes the court square and a small
extension to the east, contains forty buildings and one structure (a monument); twenty
eight buildings and the monument contribute to the significance of the district, and there
are twelve other buildings. The district has commercial, government, religious, and
residential buildings.
"Three courthouses have stood on the court square, and two of these still survive. The first,
a log building erected in 1824, was moved to its present location on Market Street, where
it was converted into the Joy-Hardaway House (No. 38) and later into the Old Courthouse
Museum. Although not on its original site, it is the oldest building in the state which has
served es a court house. A second courthouse, a brick building, was built in 1827 and
destroyed in May 1864 when federal troops fired the town. The present courthouse (No.25)
was built in 1868; the architectural firm of Will is, Sloan, and Trigg designed the building.
Wings were added to the north and south elevations in 1955. The 1868 Hardeman County
Courthouse is the seventh oldest in Tennessee and the first built in the state after the
Civil War.
Twenty-two cf the twenty-eight buildings and structures which contribute to the significance
of the district are commercial or professional buildings; of this number thirteen are
nineteenth-century buildings and the remaining nine were constructed between 1900 and 1915.
This collection is a catalogue of styles of commercial buildings built in a southern county
seat during the period 1852 to 1915; there is at least one building representing each of
the seven decades. The stylistic transition moves from the sedately ornamented 1852
Coleman Building (No. 21; to the Victorian, three-section, effusively decorated commercial
building at the corner of Market and Main Streets (No. 6) and the Ragon Building (No. 8),
both of which were erected in 1878; to the relatively plainer, utilitarian buildings of the
nineties, such as the 1890 building that houses Cates Jewelers and Purple Daisy (No.7).
The twentieth century commercial buildings, are almost completely utilitarian and ornamentation
is minimal. Some examples are the Miller and Wood Department Store (No.5). and the
Barrett and Stevens Building (No. 16). One notable exception is the Bolivar Bank Building
(No. 20) which has an excellent Neo-Classical facade.
The architecture of the courthouse and commercial buildings in the district illustrate the
effect of the Civil War on the economy of Bolivar. The first building reconstructed after
the war, and the most necessary, the courthouse, was completed in 1868. A few commercial
buildings were erected in the 1870s, but the majority were not built until after the 1880s.
Businesses either did not rebuild at once or occupied temporary quarters for many years.
The economic upheaval is reflected in the chronology of the commercial architecture of
this town." ~ NRHP Nomination Form