State Street Historic District

State Street is the commercial core of Carthage, New York, and the historic district covers three blocks of it, with 29 mostly attached brick buildings, plus one on North Mechanic Street. Most went up between 1860 and 1900, in Gothic, Italianate and Romanesque Revival styles. Fires in 1861, 1884 and 1892 destroyed much of the business area, and the Great Fire of 1884 leveled 157 structures. Rebuilding was rapid, and photographs from 1899 show the district largely reconstructed. Many buildings carry cast or sheet metal cornices from the Mesker Brothers of St. Louis, and the Frederick Building at 277 State Street has a complete Mesker sheet metal front. The four-story First National Bank Building, with its slate mansard roof and Eastlake detailing, is the visual focal point. Although many storefronts have been altered, the upper floors remain remarkably intact. Little construction after 1900 left the streetscape cohesive, and it records the village's shift from iron to paper manufacturing.