Ferndale Main Street Historic District

Ferndale's Main Street district is the historic commercial heart of a dairy town in rural Humboldt County, California. The linear four-block area contains 40 contributing and 15 noncontributing resources, mostly one- and two-story false-front commercial buildings with glass storefronts and recessed entrances. Two eras dominate: ornate Late Victorian buildings from 1880 to 1900, including Stick Style works designed by local architect T.J. Frost, and plainer stucco Modernistic and Mission Revival buildings from 1920 to 1936. Examples include the 1877 Alford Drug Store, the 1891 Masonic Temple, the 1911 Ferndale Bank in the Neo-Classical style, and the 1930 Kemp Building. The district is significant because it preserves a coherent, little-altered streetscape, helped by its agricultural setting and limited modern development. Later buildings from the 1940s and 1950s, and Neo-Victorian work of the 1970s, are counted as noncontributing. Contributing buildings are described as in good to excellent condition, and the area remains a business district and visitor draw.