South Main Street Historic District

South Main Street in Geneva runs for about a mile along high ground above Seneca Lake's west bank. The historic district covers roughly 140 buildings, Pultney Park and the old quadrangle of Hobart College. Captain Charles Williamson, agent for the English Pultney Associates, is credited with laying out the street and park in the 1790s, and early lot terms kept the east side open to preserve the lake view. More than half the buildings date from 1825 to 1850, including brick rowhouses near the park and Greek Revival houses with porticos at the south end. Other styles range from Federal frame houses of 1802 and 1804 to Italianate, Gothic, Stick Style, Queen Anne, Tudor and Colonial Revival. Churches by Richard Upjohn and academic buildings by Clinton and Russell and Arthur Nash add variety. Railroad construction in the 1850s shifted commerce away, which kept the street residential. The Ladies Home Journal praised it in 1898. Hobart College and the Geneva Historical Society have helped preserve it.