Lancaster West Main Street Historic District

This block of West Main Street forms the core of downtown Lancaster, Ohio. The district contains 26 mostly brick buildings, three to four stories tall, with uniform setbacks and largely intact upper-level details. Their ages range from about 1830 to 1930. Styles run from Federal examples, such as the c. 1830 building at 154-156 W. Main and the Flemish-bond City Loan building, to High Victorian Italianate and Second Empire commercial blocks, Romanesque Revival, and the Art Deco Lyric Theater. The Mithoff Hotel began as the Swan Hotel in 1820 and was enlarged in 1860-61. Lancaster was laid out in 1800 and prospered with a canal and several railroads. Between 1860 and 1890 most early Federal commercial buildings were replaced with Italianate, Second Empire and Romanesque Revival designs. The street looks much as it did in a turn-of-the-century photograph, though ground-floor storefronts have been altered. The district was recognized for its cohesive streetscape and for showing how the commercial center grew over time.