Downtown Wilkesboro Historic District

Downtown Wilkesboro is the historic core of the Wilkes County seat in North Carolina's western Piedmont. The district covers roughly thirty-seven acres over eighteen blocks and still follows the street grid that General William Lenoir drew in 1800, with an open square reserved for the courthouse. Its 127 resources include houses, stores, a church, a former school, a cemetery and several monuments, along with earlier-listed landmarks such as the Old Wilkes County Jail, the former courthouse and the 1915 Federal Building. Construction dates run from the ca. 1835 Brown-Cowles House to the mid-1950s, with the 1920s and 1930s the busiest decades. Styles include vernacular Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman bungalow and Commercial, plus Federal, Greek Revival and Beaux Arts examples. After the railway made North Wilkesboro the county's trade center in the 1890s, Wilkesboro's commercial area grew little, which helped preserve its older fabric. About seventy percent of the resources contribute to the district's character.