OLDEST -- Existing Main Street in Arkansas - Batesville, Ar. - Superlatives on Waymarking.com

Located on the same site as Batesville's earliest important business buildings the Commercial Historic District reflects the prosperity brought to an old inland riverport by the railroad and extractive exploitation in the period from 1880 to 1920 when the modest business district was entirely rebuilt. The District is located at the lower (west) end of Arkansas' oldest existing Main Street, platted in 1821. The street was laid out from the bank of the White River on a point formed by the mouth of Poke Bayou and was extended by additions in 1837 and 1848 straight up the series of river terraces on which Batesville is built rising about 100 feet in its one-and-a-mile length. Business was concentrated on Lower Main and residences of the town's merchant, professional, and planter gentry lined Upper Main. After the 1840's expansion of the business center required destruction of residences or older business houses -- a process which has abated only in the past five years leaving six blocks of commercial buildings and sin blocks of residences on Main Street.

The Commercial Historic District contains a high concentration of significant structures retaining their original fabric from the late 1870's to the 1920's. This District occupies the last block of the Old Town plat (1821) and several lots of the Old Town Addition (1837). The lower or western boundary has been drawn at State Street where the first blocks of contiguous party-walled structures begin. The clear boundaries on the north and south reflect the fact that the commercial district was no more than one-half block wide on each side of Main Street. Along Central Avenue, significant structures were built when the Poke Bayou Bridge made that cross street a thoroughfare. On the east, the facades of more recent buildings provide a gentle transition from the District to the full fabric of Batesville's downtown commercial and courthouse center.

Twenty-five (now thirty-six) buildings are included in the District. A majority were built during the period of greatest significance from 1880 to 1920. Two were built in the 1870's, fifteen between 1880 and 1900, and four between 1900 and 1920. One incompatible, Colonial style office building built in 1975 and one vacant lot occur at street corners and are less visually disturbing than they would be elsewhere. The character and relationship of the joined facades rising up both sides of the sloping street are the most appealing visual characteristics of the District.

While many of the structures are interesting individually, the unity produced by continuity of color, scale, and materials creates a strong impression. (See individual descriptions.) The common denominator is the use of local sandstone blocks as a construction material. Only four buildings are entirely of brick. Five others are stone with brick facades. Two are stone with stuccoed facades, and eleven are entirely stone, either smooth or rusticated. The weathered local sandstone, mellowed brickwork, and natural stucco blend into a pattern of color which gives the buildings unusual unity through time.