{"nrhp_refnum":"73000456","name":"Cottonwood Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Off US 99","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cottonwood","county":"Shasta County","state":"CA","lat":40.38237224000005,"lon":-122.28119078599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-07-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district in the town of Cottonwood, at the southern boundary of Shasta County, California, centered on Front Street and its 19th-century brick buildings and railroad depot, with the old school and an old Baptist church sanctuary on Bush Street. The community dates to 1852 and moved to its present site after 1872.","why_significant":"Cottonwood began in the 1850s as a gold miner stopping point and ferry crossing, then grew into a significant northern California trade center through lumbering and agriculture. The nomination says the downtown still looks much as it did in 1872, and the historic core preserves evidence of the town's early history.","narrative":"Cottonwood is a small Shasta County town whose historic core along Front Street survives much as it appeared in 1872. The community began in 1852 as a creekside store and ferry crossing for miners and settlers, then moved to its present site when the Southern Pacific Company bought land and built a depot while extending its line north toward Oregon. Front Street is unusually wide because teamsters needed room to turn wagons loaded with lumber and farm goods, and hitching rings remain on the high curbs. Several 19th-century brick buildings line the street, and the railroad depot, now used for storage, still faces it. Beyond Front Street, the old Cottonwood school, now a Grange Hall, and the old sanctuary of the First Baptist Church stand on Bush Street. Lumbering, farming, a flour mill, a creamery and a large electrical substation later supported the town, which became an important northern California shipping and trade center.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific dates 1852; 1872)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is given as excellent but altered, on its original site. The railroad depot is now a storage building and the old school is now a Grange Hall.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.524173-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/73000456.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000456/6c41e2aabf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000456/6c41e2aabf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"RalphDailey","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cottonwood_Historic_District_2012-09-25_11-45-48.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">RalphDailey</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cottonwood_Historic_District_2012-09-25_11-45-48.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861916","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonwood_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49480384"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/shasta-county/cottonwood-historic-district-73000456/"}