{"nrhp_refnum":"79001938","name":"Boneyfiddle Commercial Disrict","other_names":["See Also:First Presbyterian Church"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Front, Washington, 3rd and Scioto Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Portsmouth","county":"Scioto County","state":"OH","lat":38.73166354350005,"lon":-83.00502670518141,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 35-acre commercial and residential historic district in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, covering almost all of the original town platted in 1803 by Henry Massie. It lies southwest of the present city center, bounded roughly by Front, Washington, Third and Scioto Streets.","why_significant":"The district holds cohesive blocks of mid-19th-century Italianate commercial buildings with abundant cast iron, along with early 19th-century Greek Revival and Federal houses. It reflects Portsmouth's 19th-century importance as the southern terminus of the Ohio and Erie Canal, a river port and an industrial center tied to the Hanging Rock Iron Region. Its buildings are also linked to local merchants, bankers, manufacturers and civic leaders.","narrative":"Boneyfiddle is the old commercial heart of Portsmouth, Ohio, covering about 35 acres and nearly all of the town Henry Massie platted in 1803. Its blocks hold Italianate storefronts with cast-iron detail, large hotels such as the 1871-72 Biggs House and the 1899-1900 Portsmouth Hotel, and a scattering of Greek Revival and Federal houses, mostly along Front Street. The First Presbyterian Church of 1849-50 is a visual anchor. The district is tied to the city's rise after 1832, when Portsmouth became the southern end of the Ohio and Erie Canal, and to river trade and the nearby iron-producing region. Business activity shifted northeast after a new post office was built in 1892, so the older streetscape changed little afterward. Surviving buildings recall shoe factories, a brewery, hotels, Ohio's first department store of its kind in Portsmouth, and the homes of bankers, builders and industrialists who shaped the town's economy.","period_of_significance":"1803-1900","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate commercial buildings with Greek Revival and Federal houses; also Second Renaissance Revival and Romanesque Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Mixed commercial and private residential use; the form lists the district as occupied, privately owned, with some buildings under restoration.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.764354-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/79001938.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001938/3373a648cd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001938/3373a648cd-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Market_Street_in_Boneyfiddle.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Market_Street_in_Boneyfiddle.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991261","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boneyfiddle_Commercial_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4941776"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/scioto-county/boneyfiddle-commercial-disrict-79001938/"}