Fort Scott Downtown Historic District - Fort Scott, Kansas - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Located on higher ground above the Marmaton River to the north and northwest, the Fort Scott Downtown Historic District is located in the center of the business district of Fort Scott, Kansas (pop. 8,297). Fort Scott is the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas. Throughout much of its history, Fort Scott was served by three main railroads: Missouri Pacific, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, St. Louis and San Francisco. Because of the railroads and the natural resources of the surrounding region, the town developed a number of industries in the late nineteenth century and some important companies in the early twentieth century that supported the local economy. The Fort Scott Downtown Historic District includes the central core area of the historic commercial district that developed from 1863 until circa 1970 when an Urban Renewal program demolished a number of commercial buildings to the north and east. Historic district boundaries are based on previous historic preservation survey and recommendations by the staff of the Kansas Historic Preservation Office.

The Fort Scott Downtown Historic District is a roughly rectangular area of approximately nine-and-a-half blocks with irregular boundaries. Beginning at the northeast corner, the boundary runs from the intersection of East Wall Street with the alley between Scott Avenue and State Street two blocks south to the intersection with Second Street, then west on Second Street two blocks to the alley between Main Street and National Avenue, then south one block to Third Street, then west one-and-a-half blocks to the intersection with Judson Street, then north one block to Second Street, then east to the intersection of Second Street with the alley between Judson Street and National Avenue, then north three blocks to Oak Street, then north to correspond with the property lines for 102 National (inventory #83), then east along the same property line to National Avenue, then south less than one-half block to Oak Street, then east one block to the intersection with Old Fort Boulevard (a diagonal street), then southeast along Old Fort Boulevard one block to the intersection of Wall Street and Scott Avenue, then east on Wall Street approximately one half block to the point of beginning.

The historic buildings in the Fort Scott Downtown District represent several architectural style classifications: Late Victorian-Italianate, Queen Anne, and Romanesque; Early Twentieth Century American Movements-Commercial, Classical Revival, Renaissance, and Spanish Revival. The largest group from the late nineteenth century is Italianate with twenty-five examples. There are four Romanesque examples and four Queen Anne examples. The largest group from the early twentieth century is Commercial style with fourteen examples. There are six Classical Revival examples as well as three Renaissance Revival examples and three Spanish Revival examples. Other styles include Gothic Revival, Beaux Arts, and Moderne with single examples.

The district includes forty-two buildings that were constructed before 1900, twenty-five constructed between 1900 and 1929, seven buildings constructed between 1930 and 1959, and nine buildings constructed after 1960. Twenty-four buildings were constructed during the boom years between 1880 and 1889. As the developmental history in the nomination outlines, Fort Scott enjoyed an economic boom and dramatic population increase in the 1880s and prospered through the 1920s but the population declined after World War II ended.

A substantial percentage of the buildings in the Fort Scott Downtown Historic District retain sufficient architectural integrity to contribute to the appearance and feeling of the district. There are fifty-eight contributing and previously-listed resources in a district of eighty-eight total resources (66%).