{"nrhp_refnum":"87001604","name":"Allen Block","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"400--422 N. Main","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bryan","county":"Brazos County","state":"TX","lat":30.676935066000055,"lon":-96.37302308099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-09-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A row of one-story brick commercial storefronts at 400-422 N. Main Street in downtown Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, built between about 1890 and 1900 (form dates 1890/1920). The architect and builder are unknown.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that most of downtown Bryan's buildings were heavily altered in the 1950s and 1960s, while this row remains largely unaltered. It is presented as a representative example of the small commercial buildings once common in Bryan's downtown. The area suffered from the shift of retail activity away from downtown after World War II.","narrative":"Along the 400 block of North Main Street in Bryan stands a row of five one-story brick commercial buildings, dating from roughly 1890 to 1900. Each has load-bearing masonry walls, a flat roof, wood canopies and storefronts divided by slightly projecting brick piers. Several have round-arched entries with transoms, corbeled parapets and decorative brickwork. Over the years they housed many small businesses, including cafes, grocery stores, a laundry, a shoe shop, a confectioner and a dairy store. Some storefronts have lost arch supports or had display areas and windows changed, and the buildings were recorded in fair to poor condition. They were listed because most of downtown Bryan was heavily remodeled during the 1950s and 1960s, and this row remained largely unaltered. It represents the small commercial buildings once common in the downtown, an area hurt by the postwar move of retail activity elsewhere.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular commercial buildings","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition described as fair to poor; the buildings were in commercial use when recorded in 1986.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.427954-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/9684/40968477/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/87001604.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001604/01e72498b9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001604/01e72498b9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Renelibrary","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AllenBlock_(1_of_1).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Renelibrary</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:AllenBlock_(1_of_1).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100012600","name":"Downtown Bryan Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/downtown-bryan-historic-district-100012600/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40968477","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110000072"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/brazos-county/allen-block-87001604/"}