Monroe Downtown Historic District

Downtown Monroe's commercial core, grouped around a landscaped courthouse square, is made up of about six blocks of masonry buildings from 1875 to the early 1930s. The 1888 Old Union County Courthouse, designed by Raleigh architect Thomas Holt, anchors the square. The railroad reached Monroe in December 1874, and the town became a market for cotton and manufactured goods and a hub on the Seaboard Air Line route. Key properties include the 1875 People's Bank Building, the Belk/Bundy Building of 1911 and the Hotel Joffre of 1917-1919, which had 100 guest rooms. Many buildings were erected by the Shute and Belk families and by the Monroe Hardware Company, which by 1919 was the largest hardware jobber in the Carolinas. Alterations at street level are common, but most upper floors survive. The district is considered locally significant for its commercial history and architecture.