London Commercial Business Historic District

London's central business district, in Madison County, Ohio, is a compact group of government and commercial buildings clustered around the courthouse square. The 1892 Madison County Courthouse, a Second Empire stone building with a belvedere and clock tower, anchors the district, and the adjoining Sheriff's House and Jail date from the same year. Most commercial blocks are Italianate and went up after a fire in 1854 destroyed many early buildings near High Street. Three Greek Revival buildings predate that fire, including the 1848 Phifer House Hotel and the Cowling House, a hotel near the railroad. Later additions include a Queen Anne storefront, Georgian-influenced bank buildings of the 1910s, the 1925 Armory and the 1936 State Theater. The 1974 tornado removed the courthouse belvedere, which was reconstructed, and several cornices. The town plat, filed in 1811, was deliberately oriented northeast-southwest so that sun would reach every house. The form lists the district's significance in architecture and commerce, and cites the railroad's arrival in 1849 as a driver of growth.