Lawrenceburg Commercial Historic District - Lawrenceburg, TN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 14.448 W 087° 20.104
16S E 469514 N 3899798
The 1905 courthouse was razed and the courthouse lawn is now the center of the square as a park, with all the statues and monuments still remaining as if still on the courthouse lawn.
Waymark Code: WMTZFF
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 01/28/2017
Views: 1
County of district: Lawrence County
Location of district: Roughly bounded by N. Military St., Public Sq., E. Gaines St. and E. Pulaski St. , Lawrenceburg
Note: Building Number 34, (35-36 Public Square) the old White's Hardware building has fallen down and has been razed to an empty lot.
The NRHP Nomination form states the center of the square is a fountain with rest rooms underneath it. This is no longer there. There is a large gazebo in the center, looks like it was make from parts of an old train depot landing.
"The nominated district includes all of the historic public square area.
Ironically the most important missing element is the courthouse itself. In
the 1960s, the county demolished a circa 1905 courthouse, replacing it with
a strikingly modern courthouse on West Gaines Street. The lot for the
courthouse, along with historically significant monuments to David Crockett
and the Mexican War, is still intact in the center of the square. This
area presently serves as a city park, complete with landscaping, a
fountain, and park benches.
The move of the courthouse to West Gaines Street was a logical decision for
the county government, considering the importance of Gaines Street as a
modern transportation and commercial artery. U.S. 'Highway 64 runs through
Lawrenceburg as Gaines Street and this highway, not the much older Military
Road of the nineteenth century, serves as the county's primary
transportation corridor. As the importance of Highway 64 became more
pronounced in the 1920s and 1930s, the focus of commercial activity began
to shift from the public square to the two blocks directly north of square,
especially where Highway 64 bisected North Military Street. This more
recently developed commercial area, which is directly linked to the square
by North Military Street, completes the Lawrenceburg Commercial Historic
District.
"The nominated district contains properties in the one and two hundred
blocks of North Military Street, the Public Square, the one hundred block
of West Gaines Street, and the one hundred block of West Pulaski. The
district has a total of forty-seven properties that have a total of fifty
individual resources associated with them. Forty-five buildings continue
to or have served commercial functions and one serves as a public building
(a post office). Of the fifty buildings, thirty-eight are contributing
resources to the district while twelve are non-contributing resources.
These figures include the courthouse square located in the center of the
public square, as well as the monuments in the square.
Contributing resources (C) are significant to the commercial and
architectural development of the district, possess compatible design
elements, and maintain the scale and use of the district. Non-contributing
resources (NC) have little or no architectural significance, have lost
their integrity or they do not fall within the period of significance. In
the inventory, the current name of the building is given first and the
historic name, when known, is listed second." ~ NRHP Nomination Form