Shepard Street-South Road Street Historic District

Elizabeth City's Shepard Street-South Road Street district is a mostly residential neighborhood of houses, churches and neighborhood stores south of the downtown area. Development began in piecemeal fashion in the early 1850s on the former Race tract, a site of antebellum horse races, after the area was taken into the city limits in 1851. Growth continued through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and into the 1930s. The district holds Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Eastlake, Colonial Revival, Bungalow and American Foursquare houses, plus many modest gable-front dwellings. Its significance lies in its role as the center of Elizabeth City's black community after the late 1800s. Congregations of the city's major black denominations were located here, and the State Colored Normal School, now Elizabeth City State University, occupied a building in the district from 1892 to 1912. Several black fraternal halls and a movie theatre also stood in the neighborhood.