Saluda Main Street Historic District

Main Street in Saluda, North Carolina, forms a compact linear district of 24 resources beside the railroad tracks at the top of the Saluda Grade. Most are one- or two-story red brick commercial buildings from about 1900 to 1935, with stepped parapets, recessed entrances and corbeled cornices. The M. A. Pace Store, built between 1905 and 1910, has stayed in family operation and keeps its board walls, original shelves and display cases. Other notable buildings include City Hall, with a rare pressed metal facade, the gable-fronted Pebbledash Building, a 1930s Standard Oil station, a Stick-style depot, and the Gothic Revival Saluda Presbyterian Church of 1895-96. The town grew because of the railroad, which reached it in 1878, and later flourished as a resort for visitors seeking mountain air. Although some storefronts have been altered and a few newer buildings have been added, the district still conveys the character of an early twentieth-century small-town commercial center.