Marysville Historic District

Downtown Marysville's historic core combines a commercial center, a civic and church area, and a residential street. The commercial blocks around the Public Square at Main and Fifth Streets are mostly two and three story late nineteenth century buildings, many Italianate or Romanesque Revival in style, including the 1864 Union Block and the 1870 and 1883 Houston Building. The 1896 Liggett Building, built by the Sharrer Brothers Construction Company, stands out for its polychrome brick and terra cotta. To the west, the 1883 French Second Empire Union County Courthouse anchors an area of churches, a 1909 Carnegie library and the 1846 Cyprian Lee House, the oldest brick building in town. West Fifth Street holds the finest homes built before 1910. The district was valued for its architectural unity, for its link to local figures such as Christopher Houston and Josiah Morelock, and for the courthouse. Platted in 1819, the town kept its commercial center at the Public Square.