{"nrhp_refnum":"84002893","name":"Ford Block","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"188-202 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oneonta","county":"Otsego County","state":"NY","lat":42.45396255900005,"lon":-75.06162991399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-09-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large three-story brick commercial building at 188-202 Main Street in Oneonta, Otsego County, New York, built in 1881-1882 in a modified Queen Anne style after a fire destroyed earlier stores on the site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is architecturally significant as a distinctive, well-preserved modified Queen Anne commercial block. It is historically significant for its link to Oneonta's railroad-driven growth in the late nineteenth century, when a turnpike village became a small urban and industrial center. It was also the first commercial building connected to the village's water and gas utilities.","narrative":"Ford Block is a three-story brick commercial building at 188-202 Main Street in Oneonta, built in 1881-1882 after a July 1881 fire destroyed several stores, including the stone store of merchant Eliakim R. Ford. Designed by local architect L.H. Blend, it combines a regular, typical commercial facade with Queen Anne touches: hooded round-arched third-story windows, varied brick corbels and panels, sunburst window tympanums, fanlight transoms, colored glass in upper sash, and marble sills, keystones and capitals. It was the first commercial building connected to the village's new water and gas lines. Its construction reflects Oneonta's rapid growth after the railroad arrived in 1865, when the population rose from 744 to 3,700 by 1882. Shops occupied the street level, with professional offices above. Urban renewal once called for its demolition, and it stood vacant for about seven years. It now anchors the business district beside a park created where Broad Street was closed, and a rehabilitation was underway at the time of nomination.","period_of_significance":"1881-1882","architect_builder":"L.H. Blend","architectural_style":"Modified Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Vacant from about 1977 with deterioration; a major rehabilitation for retail and office space was underway at the time of nomination, with 1930s-1950s storefront alterations removed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:43.000412-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/84002893.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002893/225d1e0072-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002893/225d1e0072-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Ruhrfisch (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_Block_Oneonta_NY_1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruhrfisch (talk)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_Block_Oneonta_NY_1.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"03001245","name":"Oneonta Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/oneonta-downtown-historic-district-03001245/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320935","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Block","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5467658"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/otsego-county/ford-block-84002893/"}