North Main-North Gay Streets Historic District

North Main and North Gay Streets in Mount Vernon, Ohio, form a linear district of 155 contributing buildings, including houses, churches, commercial blocks, and many rear outbuildings now used as garages or storage. Most date from about 1820 to 1925, and large shade trees and brick-paved streets shape the setting. The oldest documented building, at 100 North Main Street, was built in 1823 in the Federal style for H.B. Curtis and later given a mansard roof. The district shows nearly every major residential style of its era, with fifteen Greek Revival examples, twenty-two Italianate ones, Gothic Revival houses from the 1850s, Second Empire homes, and Queen Anne, Craftsman and Colonial Revival buildings. A 1931 Moderne armory is also included. Merchants, a cabinetmaker, a banker, a physician and industrialists built homes here as their businesses prospered, and local architect Daniel Clark designed one of the Greek Revival houses. The area compares closely with Mount Vernon's other historic residential districts.