Reidsville Historic District

Reidsville's historic district covers about 140 acres in the north central part of the city. It takes in the downtown business blocks, an industrial area to the east and northeast, and residential streets to the west and southeast. The town was little more than a stagecoach stop until the Piedmont Railroad arrived in 1863, and the railroad and the tobacco trade drove its growth afterward. Of the 419 buildings, 324 contribute to the district's character. Early Italianate houses and brick commercial blocks from the 1880s give way to Queen Anne dwellings, classical revival homes and churches, and Craftsman bungalows. Notable buildings include Melrose, a 1909 Neo-Classical Revival house, the 1926 Municipal Building, and a mid-1930s Art Deco post office. The surviving tobacco factory and leaf houses recall the industry that built the town. The district is considered significant for this range of buildings from roughly 1865 to 1941.