Celina Main Street Commercial Historic District

Downtown Celina's Main Street district is a compact commercial core of about six acres, made up of a county courthouse, a city hall and forty-six commercial buildings. Most are brick and range from one to three stories. The oldest is believed to be the 1872 Riley Building, and the newest is a 1954 building. A fire in 1894 destroyed the west side of Main Street between Market and Fayette, and most of that area was rebuilt by the end of 1896, giving the district its cohesive turn-of-the-century look. The buildings show Italianate, Richardsonian Romanesque, Queen Anne, Chateauesque, Renaissance Revival and Neo-Classical Revival styles. The 1922 limestone courthouse, designed by Peter Hulsken of Lima, anchors the north end, and the 1890 Municipal Building remains in original condition. The district reflects Celina's role as a regional center of medicine, law, banking and politics, whose prominent residents invested in Main Street. Vacant lots and altered buildings interrupt the streetscape in places, and five buildings are considered non-contributing.