Central Shelby Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This boundary increase adds 44 resources in seven clusters at the edges of Shelby's central historic district in Cleveland County, North Carolina. The new area includes houses, churches, warehouses, commercial buildings and a railroad freight depot, built between about 1850 and 1952. Most of the added houses are modest bungalows or small one-story dwellings, with some Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival examples. Notable buildings include Ascension Lutheran Church (1932), a Gothic Revival brick church, and Shelby Presbyterian Church (1952), designed by Harold Wagoner of New York. The Southern Railway Freight Depot (ca. 1920) is described as Colonial Revival, and the Shelby Supply Company warehouse (1932, enlarged 1948) served the cotton mill industry. Warehouses and commercial buildings form an industrial ring around the downtown core. The expansion also extends the district's period of significance to ca. 1850-1952, and nine properties previously classed as neutral now count as contributing. It is recognized for its architecture and its role in the city's social history.