Downtown Smithfield Historic District

Brick commercial buildings from about the 1890s through the 1930s line the streets around the crossing of South Third and Market streets in Smithfield, the Johnston County seat. The district grew after an 1889 fire destroyed the earlier business core, and rebuilding concentrated at this intersection. Growth accelerated with the railroad, which reached the town in 1882, and with the bright leaf tobacco market established after 1898. Most buildings are modest, one- and two-story structures with corbelled cornices, recessed panels, quoins and flat stone lintels, typical of commercial towns across eastern North Carolina. Several stand out: the three-story Austin Building of 1921, with its red pressed brick facade, the Neoclassical Hood Brothers Building and First Citizens Bank, and the Howell Theater of 1935, regarded as the finest Art Deco building in the town. Many storefronts have been altered, but the upper floors retain much of their original design, materials and scale.