South Main Street Historic District (Oregon, Wisconsin)

The South Main Street Historic District is a surviving collection of eleven commercial buildings built from 1877 to 1915 in the old downtown of Oregon, Wisconsin, plus the WWI memorial.[2] It was added to the State and the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.[3]

South Main Street Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
A portion of the district.
Location	S. Main St., jct. with Jefferson and Janesville Sts., Oregon, Wisconsin
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
NRHP reference No.	00000699[1]
Added to NRHP	June 15, 2000

The first house in what would become Oregon was built in 1842, a log cabin built for C.P. Mosely just east of what is now the Main Street district. The house became a tavern and a general store under I.M. Bennett. James Coville built another log house in 1843, just north of the district, and operated a shoe shop in it. A community grew there, called "Rome Corners." A post office was added in 1848, and a frame hotel called the Oregon Exchange in 1849.[2]

In 1857 Charles Waterman had a village platted and called "Oregon." In 1864 the Beloit and Madison Railroad reached town, making Oregon a shipping point for the surrounding country. In 1883 the village incorporated, with over 500 inhabitants. The village continued to grow, adding a flour and grist mill in 1890, the first bank in 1892, a volunteer fire-fighting company in 1895, a water tower in 1898, a creamery in 1900, a telephone exchange in 1901, and paved streets in 1916.[2] Some of the commercial buildings from this period of expansion survive, including:

• The C.E. Powers building at 115 S. Main Street was built in 1877 - a 2-story commercial vernacular brick building that still has its cast-iron columns in the street-level storefront. The top of the front wall is decorated with a brick cornice.[2][4]
• The Cowdrey Tailor shop at 111 S. Main was built in 1878, trimmed with Italianate brickwork. In 1911 the facade was updated to a then-modern Broadfront style.[2][5]
• The Howe Drug Store at 121 S. Main was built in 1880 with Italianate-styled cream brick, then updated to red and white brick in 1907, and then updated again in 1940 with an orange brick veneer.[2][6]
• Howe Rental at 123 S. Main was also built in 1880, in a style that matched Howe's drug store next door. Its facade was updated in 1925.[2][7]
• The Marvin Hardware store/Masonic Lodge at 117 South Main Street is a nicely decorated Romanesque Revival building erected in 1898,[2][8] described in more detail in its own article.
• The Netherwood building at 104 Janesville Street (center left in the photo above) is another two-story, cream brick, Romanesque Revival building. Like the Masonic Lodge, red brick decorations contrast with the cream brick. Above the upper windows is a pressed metal cornice and a brick parapet.[2][9]
• The McDermott building at 109 S. Main is a 2-story red-brick building with white stone trim above the windows and above that a corbelled parapet topped with light stone trim. It was built in 1899.[2][10]
• The Montgomery & Martin/Observer building at 112 Janesville St. is a 2-story commercial vernacular office building with pressed metal window hoods and a pressed metal cornice. It was built in 1899.[2][11]
• The Hausmann Brewing Company Saloon at 116 Janesville St. is a small commercial vernacular building erected in 1900 with the front wire-cut orange brick.[2][12]
• The T.H. Grady Grocery at 134 S Main is a brick Modern Broadfront-style store built in 1915.[2][13]
• The World War I Veterans Memorial at Janesville and Main is a nine-foot column of polished Hurricane Island granite, saved from Chicago's old city hall, and inscribed: "ERECTED IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO SERVED OUR COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WAR 1914-1918." It was dedicated June 10, 1920, and may be the first tribute to veterans erected after the war.[2][14]