Palestine Commercial Historic District

Palestine's commercial core is a three-block stretch of South Main Street in Crawford County, Illinois, lined with 31 buildings, 25 of them contributing. Most are one or two stories of brick or stone, built between 1884 and 1928 in Late Victorian, Commercial Style and Classical Revival designs. Several storefronts carry cast iron facades made by the Mesker Iron Works of Evansville, Indiana, with fluted piers, rosettes and decorative hoods. Highlights include the limestone Farmers State Bank building of about 1912 and the Fife Opera House of 1900, which kept its painted scenery and drapery. The district is significant as the town's commercial center during a period of prosperity from the 1880s to the 1900s. River shipping on the Wabash, the Illinois Central railroad shops, a flour mill and local agriculture supported the merchants whose stores replaced earlier frame buildings. Some later alterations to facades account for the noncontributing buildings.