Dryden Historic District

Dryden Historic District covers forty-four properties in the village of Dryden, Tompkins County, New York. It is anchored by the "four corners" where East Main and South Streets meet, and it extends into the "Square," a neighborhood subdivided and built up from the 1850s with the opening of James and Pleasant Streets. Three mid-nineteenth century commercial buildings stand at the crossroads, and tree-lined residential streets make up the rest. Most buildings are frame houses built between 1800 and 1905, and all but four contribute to the district. The houses show Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Victorian Gothic and Queen Anne styles, many with their original barns. Together they record Dryden's shift from a lumbering community in the 1820s and 1830s to a manufacturing town in the 1840s to 1860s and then an agricultural market town. They range from fine homes of entrepreneurs to modest working-class dwellings.