Intensive Survey and Evaluation of the Courthouse Square Commercial Historic District, City of Winterset, Madison County, Iowa

Tallgrass Historians L.C.

From abstract: "A total of 104 buildings were inventoried within a ten block area centered on the Courthouse Square in the City of Winterset, Iowa. One additional property (the Winterset Post Office at 120 2nd Avenue North) was evaluated outside of that survey area to determine if the district boundary should be expanded to include this property, which is located off the west edge of the survey area. All of the properties were evaluated and/or re-evaluated for the current study for contributing or non-contributing status in a commercial district and/or individual eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. It was concluded that a National Register-eligible historic commercial district is present, with the recommended boundary encompassing 83 buildings, of which 77 are contributing and only 6 are noncontributing. This boundary does exclude one interesting property, the City's Power Plant located north on John Wayne Drive (historically lst Avenue North) built in 1923 and separated from the main district by an area that has suffered too much building loss and modem infill to be included in the recommended district boundary. However, this building appears to have the potential to be considered individually eligible and should be considered for individual nomination. The recommended period of significance for the commercial district nomination is from the c.1861 to 1964 (the current 50-year cut-off for National Register consideration). However, both the beginning and ending dates of the period of significance should be set at the time of actual nomination, which is the next recommended step for the Madison County Historic Preservation Commission. The Commission did submit an application for the nomination stage to the Historic Resources Development Program (IIRDP) grants and received word in June 2014 that the grant had been awarded. Therefore, it is anticipated that the district will be listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015." Funding for this project was provided in part through a fiscal year 2013 Historic Preservation Fund grant to Madison County (project number IA-13-051) administered by the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office (grant number P13AF00031) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Madison County, Iowa is a Certified Local Government.

Intensive Survey and Evaluation of the Courthouse Square Commercial Historic District, City of Winterset, Madison County, Iowa

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