Main Street Historic District

Main Street Historic District forms the center of McGraw, a village in an agricultural valley about four miles east of Cortland. The linear district follows Main Street and East Main Street and holds 34 contributing resources, including the business district, two churches, the library and some of the earliest houses. East Main Street has a group of vernacular Federal style houses built between about 1835 and 1842, several later given Victorian porches. The Lamont Memorial Library, built in 1845 as a residence, has an Ionic portico in the Greek Revival style. The south side of Main Street is a cohesive row of two- and three-story commercial buildings, rebuilt after a fire in 1906, with brick fronts, stamped-metal cornices and rock-faced concrete block. The Baptist and Methodist churches date from the 1830s but were reshaped in 1919 and 1920. Slow growth after the decline of the village's main industry helped preserve the streetscape.