{"nrhp_refnum":"85000591","name":"Penn Yan Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Yates County Courthouse Park District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Water, Seneca, Elm, Wagener, Court, Clinton, North and Main Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Penn Yan","county":"Yates County","state":"NY","lat":42.664006393500046,"lon":-77.05778601393493,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-03-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 65-acre historic district covering the historic core of the village of Penn Yan, Yates County, New York, at the northeast tip of Keuka Lake. It holds 281 structures, 210 of them contributing, dating from 1820 to 1929.","why_significant":"The district is described as the most architecturally intact and historically significant concentration of Penn Yan's buildings. It preserves nearly all of the village's business district as it stood by 1900, along with mills, churches, civic buildings and residential streets. Its growth followed water power, county seat designation in 1823, the Crooked Lake Canal and later the railroad.","narrative":"Penn Yan's historic district occupies 65 acres at the northeast end of Keuka Lake in New York's Finger Lakes region. Its 281 structures, 210 of them contributing, range in date from 1820 to 1929 and include churches, a library, a post office, a winery and the Birkett Mills complex. Main Street forms the spine, with connected brick commercial blocks at the south end giving way to wide-lawned residential streets of mostly wooden homes. Styles run from Federal and Greek Revival through Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Georgian Revival. The village grew around the water power of the Keuka Outlet, then gained from designation as county seat in 1823, the Crooked Lake Canal of 1833 and a railroad completed in 1884. Many early brick buildings were later updated with added floors and cornices. A 1978 survey set the boundaries to capture the most intact grouping, which includes the earlier-listed Yates County Courthouse Historic District.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"John Knox Taylor, architect (post office)","architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Romanesque, Eastlake, Queen Anne, Georgian Revival and Neoclassical, plus vernacular and eclectic interpretations","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked excellent and good, with the district partly altered. Many storefronts have been altered, but many retain original cast-iron and wooden elements. Thirteen properties are non-contributing.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.098689-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/85000591.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000591/9af4f6dd42-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000591/9af4f6dd42-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penn_Yan_Historic_District_Oct_09.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penn_Yan_Historic_District_Oct_09.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323376","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Yan_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7163356"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/yates-county/penn-yan-historic-district-85000591/"}