Main Street Historic District

Tampico's Main Street Historic District occupies both sides of the 100 block of South Main Street, the town's traditional business center between Market Street and the railroad tracks. Of its 14 major structures, 10 are classed as significant and three more contribute to its character. Most are two-story brick buildings with uniform setbacks and cornice lines, built after fires and a tornado in the 1870s pushed merchants toward masonry. A building boom followed between 1896 and 1905 as the town served surrounding farms and canal construction workers. The district is also known as the birthplace of Ronald Reagan, who was born on February 6, 1911, in the second-floor apartment at 111 S. Main. His father later clerked at the Pitney variety store at 122-124 S. Main, where the family lived again from 1919 to 1920. A 1970s bank building is the only intrusion, and recent fires have left a vacant lot.