Main Street Historic District

Two blocks of downtown Bowling Green, Ohio, centered on the intersection of Main and Wooster Streets, form this commercial district. It holds 44 two- and three-story commercial buildings, three newer one-story buildings and the City Building, nearly all built after 1885. Queen Anne and Classical Revival designs dominate, alongside Italianate and Romanesque Revival examples. The oldest buildings are the Lincoln Block (1874), Union Block (1877) and Exchange Bank Building (1883). Most of the rest date from the oil and natural gas boom that began in the 1880s, when fires in 1887 and 1888 destroyed over a quarter of the older frame and new business blocks. Rebuilding produced structures such as the Reed and Merry Block, Brown Hotel, Hankey Block, McKenzie-Kabig Building and Millikin Hotel. Many storefronts at street level have been altered, while the upper floors largely survive with cornices, corbelling and name plaques. The concentration of Queen Anne and classical styles is unusual for northern Ohio.