{"nrhp_refnum":"74001547","name":"First Concrete Street In U.S.","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"E. Court Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bellefontaine","county":"Logan County","state":"OH","lat":40.36077820000003,"lon":-83.75923411999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-02-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 203.5-foot block of East Court Avenue between Main and Opera Streets in Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, paved with concrete in 1893. The city owns it and it remains in use as a street.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that this was among the first public streets in the United States paved with concrete, and the form's title calls it the first. The 1893 paving, using George W. Bartholomew's patented wet-method concrete, showed that concrete could serve as a paving material. The pavement lasted 65 years before its first major maintenance.","narrative":"East Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, Ohio, between Main and Opera Streets, is a 203.5-foot stretch of street paved with concrete in the summer of 1893. It is built of concrete sections five feet square laid over a stone foundation, with a four-inch base layer and a wearing surface about two inches thick. Local cement maker George W. Bartholomew developed a wet method of making concrete and persuaded the city council to test it, first with a strip along Main Street in 1891. After the strip held up, the city contracted for paving of four streets beside the courthouse square. Bartholomew supplied the concrete free and posted a bond guaranteeing five years of wear. The streets stayed in service 65 years before major maintenance in 1956. Grooves and cleat marks were cut into the surface to give horses traction, and some grooves remain visible. The surface has worn and chipped, but the city has repaired it to match the original pattern. The street is still public and in use.","period_of_significance":"1893","architect_builder":"George W. Bartholomew (Buckeye Portland Cement Company) supplied the concrete","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a public street; condition listed as fair and altered, with surface wear and edge chipping repaired by the city in keeping with the original pattern.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.250182-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/74001547.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001547/f3fc9c0f38-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001547/f3fc9c0f38-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Court_Avenue_in_Bellefontaine.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Court_Avenue_in_Bellefontaine.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100005213","name":"Downtown Bellefontaine Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/ohio/downtown-bellefontaine-historic-district-100005213/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989752","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_Avenue","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5178213"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/logan-county/first-concrete-street-in-u-s-74001547/"}