Red Oak Downtown Historic District

The Red Oak Downtown Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Red Oak, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.[1] At the time of its nomination it contained 104 resources, which included 73 contributing buildings, eight contributing objects, one contributing site, 15 non-contributing buildings, six non-contributing objects, and one non-contributing structure.[2] The historic district covers most of the city's central business district. It is a flat area of land in an otherwise hilly region. The district is centered on Fountain Square, a public green space around which the town had been platted in 1857. A second public square was added in 1890 for the Montgomery County Courthouse after Red Oak won a special election to move the county seat from Frankfort.

Red Oak Downtown Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Armory (1899/1908)
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Location	Roughly bound by E. Hammond, N.5th, N. 1 Sts., E. Washington Ave., Red Oak, Iowa
Coordinates	41°0′33.6″N 95°13′42.8″W
Architectural style	Late Victorian Late 19th & early 20th century Revivals Modern Movement
MPS	Iowa's Main Street Commercial Architecture MPS
NRHP reference No.	16000868[1]
Added to NRHP	December 20, 2016

The district contains a mix of attached commercial buildings and free-standing government, commercial and light industrial buildings. The courthouse (1891), Red Oak Firehouse and City Jail (1898/1901), and the Red Oak Public Library (1909) are all individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2] Most of the buildings are two-part commercial blocks that reflect the styles and materials that were popular when they were built. The single-story buildings are generally one-part commercial blocks or roadside commercial buildings. Fountain Square is the contributing site and all of the contributing and non-contributing objects are located there, generally as war memorials or park elements.